PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
CHANCERY LANE
LONDON WC2A 1LR
Switchboard 01-876 3444
Direct Line
01-878
Fax
GTN
01-878 7231 2851
Keeper of Public Records
RESTRICTED
Miss Patricia M Barnes
Librarian and Keeper of the Records Foreign & Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
2 November 1988
Dear lat
KWANTUNG PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES (FO 931)
As you will see from the enclosed letter, the future of the Kwantung Provincial Archives has now been raised officially by the State Archives Bureau of the People's Republic of China.
When a Chinese delegation came to London in September following the Paris Congress, my line was that the precise status of the records themselves was a question of international and national law way beyond the powers and understanding of us simple archivists, and that if they wished to pursue the matter, it should be at higher, diplomatic levels.
However, I did promise to look for an interim "professional" solution whereby the Public Record Office would make a microfilm copy available to the State Archives Bureau. The class has already been microfilmed, so the provision of a copy would be relatively inexpensive and the cost could be meet from our internal preservation copying budget. Hence, unless you can see any objection in principle, I propose supplying to the State Archives Bureau, free of charge, а reversal negative on condition that it is preserved as an archival copy but with permission to make a limited number of viewing copies from it for consultation in appropriate archives within China.
Given the fact that the Kwantung Provincial Archives were undoubtedly originally Chinese domestic records which find themselves by chance among the UK public records, and that they can be clearly distinguished from other records of the Foreign Office and Colonial Office which might be subject to claims by other countries but which have always been public records, I do not feel that this gesture in the interests of good Anglo-Chinese international relations would constitute an unwelcome precedent.
yous Michael
MICHAEL ROPER
cc: Michael Ellis (LCD)