TNAG-1151-FCO40-1431-Relations-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-United-Nations-1983 — Page 20

C

CONFIDENTIAL

2

DSR 11C

approved a preliminary list of territories, including

Hong Kong, to which the Declaration applied.

This was

done in 1963 when the Committee of 24 took over the

function of the Committee of Information from

Three

Non-Self-Governing Territories. representatives

(Bulgaria, Cambodia and the USSR) in the Working Group

of the Committee of 24 reserved the positions of their

Governments with regard to the inclusion of Hong Kong

in this list because they regarded this territory as

an integral part of the People's Republic of China

forcibly occupied by the UK.

On 8 March 1972 the Permanent Representative of the

People's Republic of China, in a letter to the Chairman

of the Committee of 24, asked for the removal of Hong

Kong from the list of territories' to which the

Declaration applied. A copy of the Chinese Representative's

letter is attached. He stated in the letter that Hong

Kong was part of Chinese territory occupied by the United

Kingdom and that the settlement of the question of

Hong Kong fell entirely within China's sovereign right.

ation

The letter was referred to the Working Group of the

Committee of 24. In May The Working Group's recommended

that the General Assembly should adopt the decision

removing Hong Kong from the list of non self-governing

This recommendation was approved by the

countries

CONFIDENTIAL

/Committee