DJ C Jones Esq
Secretary for the Environment Government Secretariat HONG KONG
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 173/3.
RENEE
22 MAR 1978
DESK OFF!
INDEX
No
21 March 1978
See 18
کی
FORMER KOWLOON RAILWAY STATION
1. Please refer to correspondence resting with the Governor's telegram no 337 of 16 March about the objections to the proposed demolition of the old Kowloon railway station.
2. The petition from the Hong Kong Heritage Society was delivered by hand to Buckingham Palace on 15 March (there is no record of who delivered it, but I understand that the wife of the Chairman of the Heritage Society is in England at the moment, and could well have acted as messenger). The petition was referred to us for advice at the beginning of this week, and in accordance with the established procedure for dealing with petitions from Dependent Territories, I am referring it to you for the Governor's recommendation as to the reply that should be sent. A copy of the petition is enclosed, though I am not sending the voluminous attachments that came with it since I assume that these will already be only too familiar to you.
3. During my recent visit to Hong Kong I was lobbied by the Heritage Society, and agreed to meet the Chairman, David Russell and two members of his Committee, Patricia Penn and Ruy Barretto. I listened to them rehearse their arguments on lines with which you will no doubt be familiar, and I promised that careful consideration would be given to any petition they might care to send to London. But I made it plain that it was normal procedure for Her Majesty to be guided by the advice of Her Governor in replying to petitions on matters that were clearly within the competence of the Governor, and that on the face of it there was no obvious reason for making an exception in this case.
4. As far as I can see, the petition contains no substantial new arguments and I assume therefore that the Governor's advice will be that the petition should not be granted. I doubt whether we shall wish to contest such advice, but we would be grateful for your comments on three points arising from the petition and from my discussions with Mr Russell and his colleagues:-
CONFIDENTIAL
/(1) The
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