TNAG-0926-FCO40-1144-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1980 — Page 183

香港總督府

CONFIDENTIAL

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HKG 025/1

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INDEX

21 March 1980 1989

REGISTRY

Action Taker

nyis

th. Cliff, HK+G),

Now see (19)

POLICY TOWARDS THE DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

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1. Thank you for your letter of 1 February and its enclosed memorandum about HMG's policy towards the UK's remaining dependent territories.

2.

261

13

As you say, the policy outlined in the memorandum is, in itself, unremarkable. The only problem is whether it might be misinterpreted by any of what you call the "political" territories as applying to them. Hong Kong

is always sensitive in matters of this sort. With by far the largest population of the remaining dependencies there is always a risk that the misguided or the mischievous will maintain that a policy announced for the dependent territories as a whole must have been thought up with Hong Kong in mind. However I do not think that any serious- minded person, either here or in Peking, would believe other than that Hong Kong was excluded from progress towards independence under the let-out clause in the first paragraph of the memorandum about general policy.

3. I suggest you might reconsider paragraph 2 (Powers to be retained by the British Government). As drafted the paragraph suggests on the one hand that the British Government, through the Governor, exercises a more detailed control of administration in some fields than is in fact the case (eg (iii) and (iv)), and on the other could imply that in other fields internal self-government prevails. Unless the Secretary of State is prepared to refuse to answer questions about other fields of administration than those referred to, I should have thought it would be better to replace this paragraph with something much more general and a little less emphatic such as:

In those territories where international political considerations rule out the possibility of independence, or where territories choose to remain dependent, the Secretary of State must retain overall responsibility through the Governor, for administration as well as for external affairs, defence and the judiciary.

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R J Stratton Esq CMG

AUSS FCO

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CONFIDENTIAL

14.