TNAG-0967-FCO40-1186-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 78

CODE 18-77

SS 8/78

AW 25/4

Mr Webb

bb (HK&GD K 242)

Reference

UNR. 241/2.....

HKK 210/2

RICCIOL) M MINSKAY NO.

29 APR 1980

INDEX

CER

PA

재

A

2

CHILD LABOUR IN HONG KONG

1.

Thank you for letting me see your 1979 file on this subject. I see from the top papers that both you and Hong Kong are already aware of the need to prepare material for the Working Group on slavery meeting in August (13 - 15 in Geneva), and now that we have received the formal notification from the UN under cover of Mr Snoxell's letter of 31 March perhaps we can now move to preparing a paper to present to the Working Group. I think it would be advisable to have at least a general idea of our outline reply before I follow up Mr Snoxell's suggestion and consult Mr Whitaker on what form our reply might take.

2. I think that your minute of 6 November 1979 and Mr Quantrill's letter of 8 November to Mr Ho would serve as a good basis for such a paper and one which, I must say, I would prefer to the less measured initial reactions from Hong Kong in the Anti-Slavery Society's monograph. I think that the statement made by Mrs Levin in her oral intervention at the Sub-Commission's meeting in Geneva last year, which you quote in your minute, gives us grounds to believe that her Society at least is receptive to a reasoned response on the lines of the papers already quoted.

3.

Could I ask you to lead in preparing a draft paper which I can try out on Mr Whitaker, please?

25 April 1980

S J Davey

United Nations Department K 150

233 3840