BY BAG
CONFIDENTIAL
SS 5/536/67 TC 287/73
N W BROWNE ESQ
TEHRAN
1974 ASIAN GAMES
IS
Herwey
28 December 1973
Mi Daily FED
BTED
No fontan Smith vod
Mr. Cognoson I propose to with and
lockn ayon say
we agree.
P. 1. Conv
P·A·
4/1
Fui fon
2/6
Thank you for your letter 18/13 of 9 November. In view of paragraph 3 below I have sent a copy of it to Dick Crowson in Hong Kong Department. I am sorry to have taken so long to reply.
2.
The person to whom the Organising Committee's letter of 28 July should have gone was Mr A. de O. Sales, OBE, JP, the President of the Amateur Sports Federation and Olympic Committee of Hong Kong. His address is 908 Prince's Building, Hong Kong. We have passed the letter to him via the Urban Services Department. He is however out of Hong Kong at the moment so that the letter has not reached him yet.
3.
There is a small political point on which we would, subject to F C O's advice, welcome your help. We note that the Organising Committee have described all the participants in the Asian Games as 'countries'. I do not know whether this is their standard practice or a momentary aberration. Hong Kong does not claim to be a country. That is neither here nor there. now the Peoples' Republic of China are to participate in the Games, their representative may on previous form make a mild fuss about the description, because of the Chinese claim that Hong Kong is part of China.
But,
4.
The use of the term 'country' is a very usual error. We have found in ECAFE and elsewhere that the Chinese make no objection if Hong Kong is described as a "region" or "territory", which is in fact a much more correct description for what is a Crown Colony.
It would be helpful, provided that the FCO agree, if you could get over to the Organising Committee that documents mentioning Hong Kong should refer to "participants", "territories" or some such anodyne phrase.
сс
R B Crowson Esq
F CO
(T J B George)
CONFIDENTIAL
Page 165Page 166
British Embassy Tehran
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