G I Deney Esq, CVO
Clerk of the Privy Council
The Privy Council
Whitehall
London
SW1
DRAFT
ASSOCIATION OF COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITIES
Mr Walford, to whom you wrote about the above matter, has
passed your letter to me to reply. I apologise for not
replying sooner to you.
I have asked Hong Kong Department of the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office to obtain the comments of the Hong Kong
Government. I will pass these on to you when I have them.
In my view, since the Association is non-governmental and
the issue of the continued membership of Hong Kong
institutions is not one which would fall to be discussed
with the Chinese side in the context of the Joint Liaison
Group established under the Sino-British Joint Declaration
on the Question of the Future of Hong Kong 1984, this is a
matter for the Hong Kong institutions concerned, the
Association and the Privy Council. The amendment proposed
in the Association's letter of 31 October 1991 to you seems
to be on the right lines. However, I should point out that
the Statutes as well as the Charter will need amending.
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