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Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
C Drace Francis Esq
Assistant Political Adviser
Colonial Secretariat
HONG KONG
Telephone 01-
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1:
རྒྱུས
3 June 1976
HONG KONG BOUNDARIES
1. The Directorate of Military Survey (DMS) of the Ministry of Defence have recently been in touch with me about possible changes in the depiction of international boundaries on their maps of Hong Kong. I would be grateful for your views on the political implications of these changes.
2.
On 19 March 1976 the DMS wrote to draw attention to possible problems they might have in depicting the boundaries in Hong Kong as a result of the introduction of a new Boundary Disclaimer Note which was then under discussion between Defence Department in the FCO and the DMS (the attached letter D/Svy 3/1/60 refers). The new Boundary Disclaimer Note, which has still not been finally agreed between all concerned, states that "Directorate of Military Survey maps are not to be taken as necessarily representing the view of the UK Government on boundaries or political status".
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3. After some delay, whilst the wording of the Boundary Disclaimer Note was further refined, I replied to the DMS on 4 May (copy attached) trying to isolate the political issue which I thought the DMS were raising.and which, in my view, is not strictly related to the wording of the Disclaimer Note. I subsequently had a visit from Mr Brading of the DMS who explained in more detail the changes they were proposing. Effectively, these entail marking the boun- dary where this has not previously been shown (see 2b and 2d of DMS letter of 19 March) by shading but not by a full international boundary symbol. He also said that in his view the Chinese would be aware of such changes as unclassified maps prepared by the DMS were freely available.
4.
Apparently, this particular issue is by no means new: there was extensive correspondence about it in the middle fifties. You might like to glance at back papers: a possible cross reference to give you a lead is your file no CR 26/5061/49ii of 1957 which
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