territory has a myriad of international relations, governing a wide range
of commercial and other matters. It is mainly important, therefore, that
in the process of the transfer which will be occurring in 1997 that there
should be co-operation within the spirit both of Article 4 and Annex II
5(b) in order to ensure that there is not a hiatus so that the economic,
commercial and rest of the life of Hong Kong can continue after that date.
From that point of view I think the Foreign Office have a valid point and
it will become important that this co-operation should occur.
104.
(Mr Keller)
105.
Do you agree with that, Mr Keller?
Yes.
And Dr Slinn?
(Dr Slinn) Yes, indeed. The obligation to carry out treaty
undertakings if one has made a treaty is an obligation to do so in good
faith. That does mean that co-operation in a sense has a real meaning.
What about the Chinese counter claim? They kept saying to
106.
the Committee that "everyone knew" that functional constituencies were a
certain kind, and indeed the British had invented them, and had already put
an agreement or a White Paper to this Parliament, so that changing the
membership or the style of membership of those committees was in fact
breaking the spirit of the treaty.
(Mr Duffy) With respect to the Chinese arguments, the Joint
Declaration did not require everything to remain unchanged between 1984 and
1997. It quite clearly indicated that at the point of the hand-over there
were going to be changes over matters that had been agreed in the treaty
which were important in order to give effect to the continuation of life
style of Hong Kong after 1997. That specifically includes changes to the
legislature, and Annex I, point 1 specifically indicates that the LegCo
will be elected. From that point of view it is in a sense incumbent on the
British Government in the transitional period to seek to bring that about
39