COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
84
J S Adams Esq
Manager for China
1D7 H03
Bank of England Threadneedle Street
Dear John,
HONG KONG
Telephone 01-
STRY
NKCOYO/4
RECEN
24 OCT 1990
ان ،
Your reference
Our reference
Date
SAIAFY
23 October 1990
As we agreed over the telephone this morning, I enclose a copy of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong. It is, in fact, identical to the text of the draft Agreement of which you have a copy, though the latter is prefaced by an explanatory Memorandum which does not appear in the final version.
You asked about the Land Commission. The Commission was established in 1985 in accordance with Annex III to the Joint Declaration. It conducts consultations on land leases and other related matters and is composed of three senior government officials on each side (the British side is composed of Hong Kong Government officials, and the British Senior Representative is the Hon G Barnes CBE JP, who is concurrently Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands in the Hong Kong Government). The Commission meets regularly in Hong Kong.
Beyond this and what is contained in Annex III to the Joint Declaration, there is no further general background to the Land Commission which I can offer you. You may, however, be interested to see the enclosed copy of Hong Kong telno 2286 recording the outcome of the most recent Land Commission meeting.
You raised a query about the wording in paragraph 7 (D) of Annex III of the Joint Declaration. The "Chinese side" is in fact the Chinese side of the Land Commission. Although the wording is somewhat anomalous, a distinction is being made between the rest of the business conducted in the Land Commission (which consists