CONFIDENTIAL
!
(i.e. that the Executive Government of Hong Kong is free to condutt its own policy within the field concerned) with the true constitutional position which we could not and should not wish to deny" (i.e. that the Executive Government of Hong Kong, including the Governor himself, is a government of officials who must comply with such instructions as they 'receive from their superiors).
5. I have not been able to find the. loose copy of the Long Term Arrangement which was supposed to have been enclosed with your minute, but I think that your minute itself sufficiently explains the position. I do not think that there is any special problem here. As I have said: above, any international agreements which Hong Kong makes are, in the last analysis, made on our behalf and are registrable with the United Nations as, in effect, our agreements. Before accepting them as so registrable the U.N. Secretariat will require evidence that they . were made with our authority. If we were to give an
entrustment, we should communicate it to the Secretariat and they would then accept it as evidence that any subsequent agreement covered by the entrustment on our authority. In other cases they would look for specific levidence of the authority: this is usually to be found
in an express recital in the agreement concerned.
6. I am not sure that I can help you very much on the DGATT point. The interpretation of the GATT is very much
for the Board of Trade but I do not see how we could plausibly argue that Hong Kong had acquired "full autonomy in the conduct of its external commercial relations" unless we had given it an entrustment on the lines described above.
7. I have said nothing in this minute about the political dangers of making the arrangements for Hong Kong that have been suggested. I take it that you have these very much in mind.
Aflut
(H. Steel)
11 June, 1970.
I fully agros with Mr. Stal's helpful
minute Braving
in hund ther. HK is num
opints
on behalf of H. Mit by apatich spends subovdmat b Hilly G.
I importing to
CONFIDENTIAL andur
in susty respect,
author pu
tissin to
A
honig...
from thes, of it. de S., Shadees me
vory heile suisi
い
in
Schvevad
as making APR...6.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.