TNAG-1242-FCO40-1555-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 36

604

CONFIDENTIAL

632

United Kingdom Mission to the United Nations 845 Third Avenue New York NY 10022

HKK 040/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

DUCT 1983-

Your reference

DESK OFFICEA

INDEX

PA

Our reference

Date

CO Hum Esq

Hong Kong Department

FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH OFFICE

6 October 1983

REGISTRY Acton Taken

CM2011

Der I hartpl

CHINA AND THE REGISTRATION OF INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

1. The information referred to in paragraph 2 of your letter of 3 October and paragraph 3 of the attached Research Department minute is in fact freely available: the UN Secretariat prints on the cover sheet of each item in the UN Treaty Series the particulars of the registration. From this source, it appears that the two bilateral agreements listed at a) and d) were indeed registered by the other Party, and the two air services agreements by ICAO. Under Article 3 of the regulations for the registration and publication of Treaties and international agreements adopted by the General Assembly, registration by one Party relieves all other Parties of the obligation to register (mutatis mutandis in the case of registration by a specialised agency). It is of course possible for more than one Party to submit a text for registration, in which event the Secretariat would be obliged to treat the submission which was earlier in time. as the effective registration, and the complementary submission by the other Party would not appear on the public record. But I imagine that the apparent picture disclosed by the above tells its own story.

2. I assume, from your injunction that I should have a "discreet" word with the Secretariat, that there is some inwardness about this investigation into the Chinese attitude to the registration of Treaties. If so, it would be useful for me to know before I make enquiries of any kind. There are various routes by which I could secure for you a complete and accurate account of Chinese policy in this regard, but the UN Secretariat is what it is. If you wished absolute discretion to be observed, then I would have to restrict my enquiries to one or two carefully selected sources and to make a point of asking that the fact of my enquiry was not disclosed. I will not proceed without further instructions from you on these points.

Yours,

See (648)

FD Berman

CONFIDENTIAL