нко
161
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
From the Secretary of State
HKD RECEIVED
301
DY
IND
سنا
1 MAY 1987
Mik 5/5
TAY
Der Berard
30 April 1987
几小
De case 15
Ila Lith.
301/
ст зад
Thank you for your letter of 15 April, in
which you ask why HMG has not intervened in connection
with the recent enactment in Hong Kong of the Public
Order (Amendment) Ordinance. There are a number
of reasons why we have chosen not to do so.
The first, and most important, reason is that
we see this as primarily a matter for the Hong Kong
Government. Hong Kong has long exercised a wide measure of autonomy in the handling of its internal
affairs: indeed the last occasion on which HMG took
action to disallow legislation duly passed by
Hong Kong's legislature was over 70 years ago. The
Hong Kong Agreement provides that the Hong Kong
Special Administrative Region of China will similarly
enjoy a high degree of autonomy from 1 July 1997.
It would set a poor precedent for Hong Kong's future autonomy if we were to begin to intervene now without very good reason: and we do not believe that the present legislation gives genuine cause for the concerns.
you describe.
The Ordinance in question was first published
as one of two related bills on 19 December 1986.
It was thereafter the subject of detailed discussion
The Rt Hon Sir Bernard Braine DL, MP