SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)
six month breathing space was not abused and that no new
ivory entered Hong Kong during that period.
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PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
The Hong Kong authorities intend to make full use of
the six months adjustment period They are pressing
ahead with their retraining programme for ivory workers;
and they will urge the traders to take maximum advantage
of the time available to run down their stocks. (The
principal legal outlets open to them are countries who
are not party to CITES or party countries who have
entered a reservation: these would include South Korea,
Brunei, certain Middle Eastern countires and Taiwan.)
There would of course be no question of exporting ivory
to countries who were parties to CITES; nor of any
extension to the ban beyond the six month period:
thereafter the ban would be total.
The Governor of Hong Kong has advised us that, such
is the strength of feeling in the territory about this
issue, the Legislative Council would be likely to block
or delay the legislation needed to implement the ban,
unless he can clearly demonstrate that the British
Government have acted on behalf of Hong Kong to mitigate
the effects of the ban. A failure by Hong Kong to pass
the necessary legislation would put the UK in breach of
the Convention; and there could be very serious
constitutional implications if we tried to impose our
will on the territory, in addition to the bad precedent
we would be setting for Hong Kong's post 1997 future.