FROM:
Нив
290/1
B+
CEP
13 SE 1990
T C Almond
Protocol Department
DATE:
29 August 1990
Mr Seaton
FED
CC:
Mr Stone, HKD
33
Ms Cowley, CRD
Mr Ellis, East Asian
Unit, British Council Mr Connor, POD
BRITISH COUNCIL: POST IN SOUTH CHINA
1. Your minute of 24 August.
2. I see no objections. Our policy here is not to recognise "outstations" (ie offices outside the metropolitan area, which are not consulates) if the officials working there are not performing diplomatic functions (eg our consistent refusal to recognise the US experts at Cheltenham as diplomats of the US Embassy). A regional cultural office in Canton, however, would be considered as a proper diplomatic function, no doubt. I therefore conclude that the establishment of such an office is consistent with our own policy.
Almond
T C Almond