36 BUVI
MUUSE MK.
2-13 22:28
PHGE VS
CONFIDENTIAL
5.
Mr. Chan enquired as to what exactly the Commission would wish to have included in a WGA if one was to be concluded and whether the WGAS the Commission had entered into with other countries were identical. Mr. Saynor replied that all the WGA were more or less the same. Mr. Gee undertook to send copies of some existing WGA's to H.K. for reference.
Legislative Amendments
6.
DUS enquired if the Commission would like to deal with their concerns through other means, e.g. through legislative amendments. This should be adequate as the Joint Declaration clearly stipulated that existing laws in Hong Kong would be respected after 1997. Mr. Saynor replied that apparently the existing laws were inadequate to protect the War Cemeteries and there were confusions as to the role played by the various parties. DUS commented that the war cemeteries might be placed on the same footing as private cemeteries since they were not much different in nature. Mr. Reddie stated that the Commission was keen to see at least something was written down in the law to indicate that anything done on the war cemeteries in H.K. would only be done with the consent of the Commission. DUS replied that this might be difficult, but said that a more acceptable approach would be for the H.K. Government to consult the Commission before anything was done. This seemed acceptable to Mr. Saynor. Mr. Reddie continued to ask if there would be any possibility of the Commission being exempted from taxes, duties, etc. DUS remarked that this was a sensitive issue as other private cemeteries had no such problems. He would however look into this and if a case existed, lend his support. DUS further asked Mr. Reddie to write to Hong Kong setting out the Commission's proposals as soon as possible, so that early action could be taken to make the necessary legislative amendments.
ine Kole of DUS
He
By referring to Sect. 115(1) of the PH & MS Ordinance Cap. 132, DUS stated that the management and control of WG Cemetries in H.K. rested with him and he would be pleased to continue with this role. asked however if the Commission would wish to have the law suitably amended to give the Commission more flexibility in case they want to appoint another agent. Mr. Saynor replied in the positive and advised that if possible they would like to keep any interference by the law to the minimum. He added that an alternative was the Commission to operate the war graves direct from U.K. as was done in respect of the war graves in some places. Mr. Chan pointed out that the Group Supervisor in H.K. had obtained much assistance from all ranks of staff in USD. This might not be the case if DUS ceased to be the agent.
੪ .
Mr. Saynor stressed that at this stage there was no need to consider appointing another agent in H.K., but he had to bear 1997 in mind. They were most happy and grateful to DUS for his help all these years and looked forward to his continuous support.
CONFIDENTIAL
- Pand
*.