TNAG-0356-FCO40-392-Extension-of-European-Convention-on-Human-Rights-to-Hong-Kon-1973 — Page 14

4.

Mr Wilford

Mr Logan

CONFIDENTIAL

RECEV IN REGIST.12

18 NOV 1972

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but not, I

HICK,

Wusty

Mr.

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MP's LETTER

EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS: HONG KONG

1. Mr Percy Grieve MF has written to Mr Royle asking for

comments on a letter from a Mr Beard enquiring why Britain

has not extended ratification of the European Convention on

Human Rights to cover Hong Kong.

2.

When the Convention was opened for signature in 1951

we asked the Governments of the various overseas territories

for whose international relations we were responsible whether

they wished the Convention to apply to them. Hong Kong did

not. The questions has been looked at again subsequently,

and in particular in 1965/66. In his letter of 9 November

1965 to Sir Hilton Poynton, Sir David Trench concluded that

he could not safely accept the extension of the Convention

to Hong Kong, mainly because of the provisions of Hong Kong's

detention legislation. He considered that he could not afford

to risk a challenge to this legislation, and consequent

abandonment of the power of detention in special circumstances

as long as the Chinese persisted in their refusal to accept

criminal deportees. In his reply of 15 March 1966, Sir Hilton

Poynton agreed to resist any suggestion that the Convention

should be extended to the Colony "while present circumstances

persist".

CONFIDENTIAL

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