COZABW
HKD 406/2
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Mr
Mojar en
Thingle
FROM :
CO Hum
C^.19%
Hong Kong Department
DATE 5
CC :
14 April 1988
Mr Bertram, OED
BRITISH CONSULATE-GENERAL IN HONG KONG: BRITISH COUNCIL INTEREST
4
1. I had a visit yesterday from Dr Gareth Howell, Controller of the Americas, Pacific and East Asia Division at the British Council. He has recently taken up his appointment and will soon be paying a
familiarisation visit to Hong Kong and China.
This
2. At his request I explained to him our planning to accommodate
the various British offices in Hong Kong in premises which would
become the Consulate-General after 1997. He said that the British
Council remained very attracted by the idea that they should be
co-located with the various sections of a Consulate-General.
was without prejudice at this stage to the exact status of the
British Council after 1997. No decisions had yet been taken on
this: but his personal view was that it might be most practicable for the Council to have diplomatic status as an integral part of the
Consulate-General, in large part so that it could operate out of
Hong Kong into Southern China. All the sites at present on offer (which I described to him) seemed generally acceptable in terms of central location and access by public transport. He agreed that it might in practice be sensible for access to the British Council Office to be by separate lifts and/or a separate entrance, in view of the very large number of visitors which it would receive each
day.
3.
I undertook to keep him in touch with our thinking as it
developed.
Coltun
CO Hum
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