TNAG-0505-FCO40-570-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 65

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MINISTRY OF OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT & Chuck with Eland House Stag Place London SW1E 5DH

Telephone 01-828 4366

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444/9

R B Crowson Esq

Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1

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RECEIVED IN

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ASA 220/204/01

September 1974

REGISTRY NQuereference

- & SEP 1974

Dear Crowson

Date

COMMONWEALTH YOUTH PROGRAMME (POSSIBLE RESEARCH INTO DRUG DEPENDENCE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE)

We spoke about this issue and I promised to write with a copy of the Commonwealth Secretariat's letter of 29 August.

-

109

2. Basically the situation is that one of the six elements of the Multilaterally funded Commonwealth Youth Programme is for Applied Research into economic and social issues with special reference to Youth. The Programme as a whole is quite 1975/76 and it is small - £1 million to be spent over the three years 1973/74 unlikely that the Research Subhead in it will get more than £100,000 or so. Because of the small size of this Research Subhead, we have been anxious that the Commonwealth Secretariat should not sponsor research in areas which are already well covered by other agencies.

3. When we recently received a number of feelers from the Commonwealth Secretariat about possible research into the effects of drug dependence etc amongst young people, we said that, although this subject's existence had been given nodding acquiescence by the British delegate at the Commonwealth Youth Affairs Council Meeting in New Delhi in March (the Council is the final authority for the Programme) and that the subject had been mentioned in passant by Heads of Government on various occasions, there was a danger of overlap between Commonwealth Youth Programme research into the subject and similar work now being carried out by various bits of the UN system (notably UNESCO, the Narcotics Division etc).

,

4. The upshot of all this was an exchange of correspondence ending with Mr Patnaik's letter of 29 August. You will see that in the second paragraph of that letter there is a reference to "... a request for research into the field of drug addiction made by the Governor of Hong Kong to the Commonwealth Secretary- General during his last visit."

5. Did the Governor in fact discuss this issue with the Commonwealth Secretary-

If this is not the correct position General as is stated in Mr Patnaik's letter?

the Commonwealth Secretariat

we may want to think about setting the record straight in its enthusiasm for the Commonwealth Youth Programme, has sometimes been known to misinterpret polite expressions of interest as firm requests!

C T Gerard

Yours Enchely

christophia Grand

Social Affairs Department