CODE 18-77
UNCLASSIFIED
H of C
Thr
woodrad Refere
K 384/11
تما محمد
UK RAIS BIN SANIMAN
1.
On the Your MS note on Clifford Chance (HK) paper attached.
the British Government should main question, how
support a "gracious request" to the French from the Hong Kong Goverment, we must refer the papers to the FCO - HKD and Legal Advisers. tried to get Nigel Cox on the telephone this morning, whether they have already seen these papers in HKD, but he is in Hong Kong this week. I suggest the Clifford Chance documents should be taxed througn to the FCC, following a Leleysam asking for advice from Legal Advisers and other interested parties on this aspect. I attach a draft telegram.
2. Monsieur Bertolas (Clifford Chance, Paris) rang me this morning and asked if were au courant. I said we had received yesterday papers from their Hong Kong colleagues, and were referring the "constitutional" points to the FCO. I gave it as my own, unqualified, opinion that their
for a opt "gracious request" rather than a contentious approach to the Conseil d'Etat was probably the right one, for the reasons set out in the record of their meeting on 21 April.
3.
I
advice to
resisted the temptation to refer to the passage on page 7 of the faxed papers about our interventions. If we "repeatedly" asked the MOJ where matters stood in recent weeks, it was only because we wanted to obtain for the HKG the answers to the questions we had posed on their behalf : Monsieur Potocki promised on 24 March to answer those questions immediately if I put them
letter. a
We eventually I wrote on 25 March. received
reply an а
27 April, and then only because we telephoned his office- with the encouragement of M. Bertolas ! It had been made clear to M. Bertolas that we have no standing to become involved in judicial procedures.
in
A point at the bottom of page 8: it is not the President who signs decrees of extradition, but the Prime Minister (and sometimes also the Garde des Sceaux).
4.
5. Page 9 : we can only go through MFA, of course.
it would be wrong, and probably counterproductive,
And I think
to try and
present a "gracious request" in any other way than through diplomatic channels.
Haythent
Mary E Hunt 5 May 1992
UNCLASSIFIED