TNAG-0365-FCO40-411-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-international-organisations-1973 — Page 113

CUNE IDENTI

Mr Goodfellow

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1

HKIOD

K = Formaton,

Telephone 01-930 8440 Ext 89

RC Trant Esq

Department of Health & Social Security

Alexander Fleming House Elephant & Castle

SE1

Your reference

Our reference

UM 53/1

Date

6 March 1973

NN MI

I Guss we shall

•

insult HK few before ortempting any decisions

Mr. Davy B

ا حوله

see

عمر المتعام

Unis

8

droff)

HONG KONG AND UN BODIES

1.

كرة الله

You will remember that following Keith MacInnes' letter UM 53/22 7 of 1 December 1972 we decided to limit our reporting to UN bodies on Hong Kong in the first instance to those cases where we are bound by treaty obligation to report, and to consider all other cases on their merits. As a sequel to this we are now trying to establish to what extent representatives from Hong Kong are invited as, members of UK delegations to international, regional, and technical conferences within the UN system. The problem is once again to strike a balance between waiving (and thus possibly weakening) Hong Kong's established right to participate under our aegis in various technical and regional UN bodies, and, on the other hand, provoking the Chinese to an extent which could also be damaging to Hong Kong and UK interests.

2. In this connexion I would be grateful if you, and the others to whom this letter is copied, could let me know with regard to the UN bodies you deal with:

3.

(a) when representatives from Hong Kong have been present, how

regularly this has occurred and what the reasons were for inviting the representatives;

(b) what the present position is with regard to Chinese membership

of the body in question;

(c) which cases falling under (a) you consider could be reduced

without significantly prejudicing Hong Kong interests. (I imagine that in some cases it would be simple to arrange for delegates from the UK to be briefed to look after Hong Kong's special problems).

I appreciate that this will take time, particularly with regard to the regional and technical meetings, but I would be grateful for a reply, if possible, by end of March.

#

CONFIDENTIAL

W N Wenban-Smith UN Department