#
וּ
COMMONWEALTH AND AUSTRALIA CONSTITUTION ACT J
of 17 June 1988
л
(archive)
RJ N2016 See forio 736
I agree with the draft (with minor amendments). I would however, omit the square-bracketed sentence about the Chinese interest in Hong Kong archives on the second page of the draft to No 10, and the similar sentence at the end of the draft telegram to Canberra.
Although it might seem a good debating point it is not strictly relevant. The question of principle at issue in the Australian and other cases quoted is whether we can part with original documents. Where documents in the UK are concerned the Chinese are interested not so much in the documents as in the information they contain. To the extent that we are prepared to make such information available to them I am quite sure that the Chinese will be satisfied with copies. I think it very unlikely that their attitude would be influenced one way or another by our letting the Australians have an original copy of their Constitution Act, if we ever decided to do so.
PA
37
17 June 1988
Cc:
Feld
444/T
JUN 1988
PS/Lord Glenarthur
LRD
HKD
Legal Advisers
Langu
R JT McLaren