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From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
LAST
K: F
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
3 June 1974
(104)
Dear Mr Sutcliffer
You wrote to Sir Anthony Royle on 14 December, enclosing a letter which you had received from your then constituent Mrs M F Raine of 57 Glendale Road, Middlesbrough, about the BBC Radio 4 programme on the import of wildlife from China into Hong Kong. Sir Anthony replied on 3 January, saying that he was still looking into the questions raised by the BBC programme, and promsiing to send you a full reply as soon as possible.
Since the election the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Govem or of Hong Kong have continued to examine with care what is being and should be done to deal with this difficult and complex problem. Hong Kong is, of course, predominantly a Chinese society. The Hong Kong Government do not seek to dicate to their people what they should or should not eat, provided that the animals and birds are humanely treated and killed, and that internationally accepted restrictions on trade in endangered species are observed. The Hong Kong Government are, however, well aware of the problems which arise from the wildlife trade and have recently passed further legislation and taken other measures to deal with them.
As far as endangered species are concerned, the Hong Kong Govern- ment have already banned, as from 1 January 1974, the importation of threatened species listed in Appendix 1 to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. As for other potentially endangered species, such as those in Appendix II of the Convention, the decision on whether they were in fact endangered would be, under the Convention, with the Chinese Government. Our Ambassador in Peking has therefore raised the problem
JV Sutcliffe Esq
Chanelgarth
Capot Broughton
/with the
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