20 January 1992
G I Deney Esq CVO
Clerk of the Privy Council The Privy Council
Whitehall
London
SW1
Dear
Nulr Deney,
Foreign &
Commonwealth
Office
London SWVLA 2ATE
ASSOCIATION OF COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITIES
Mr Walford, to whom you wrote about the above matter, has passed your letter to me to reply.
I have asked Hong Kong Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to obtain the comments of the Hong Kong Government. These are not yet forthcoming but 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 between the British and Chinese sides 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. The paragraphs which will obviously need to be amended are paragraphs 4 and 7 of the Charter and paragraph 1 sub-paragraphs (1) and (4) of the Statutes. consequential changes will also need to be made.
As necessary,
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