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(ii) Requirement
CONFIDENTIAL
The Consular
Political and Commercial Sections of
the Consulate-General (and facilities for Other
Government Departments) will form the core of HMG's
presence in Hong Kong. At this stage, the size of all
but the first of these Sections can be reasonably
accurately defined (see below) and may remain fairly
constant during the ten years or so after 1997.
The British Council at present plan to maintain
their operations post-1997 at about the same level as
i.e. 3 UK-based officers and 50 locally-employed
staff engaged primarily on English Language Teaching but
also offering Information and Library Services,
Educational Exchange and a small Arts programme.
The
Council would have no objection in principle to their
future accommodation being co-located with the
Consulate-General, provided that they had their own
entrance and parking facilities, and were in a central
location close to public transport services. They would
not have funds to contribute to the capital cost of new
premises nor to meet a substantial increase in rent.
the other hand, they would be content to run their
operation separately. If it transpired that they would
not, post-1997, be running an operation on the present
scale, then their "rump" would need to be in the
Consulate-General.
On
CONFIDENTIAL