TNAG-1259-FCO40-1599-The-Future-of-Hong-Kong---special-study-by-FCO--August-1982--1983 — Page 69

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A Management Contract

16.

There is no purely legal or constitutional reason

why the arrangements embodied in a management contract

should not preserve the essential features of the present

administration of Hong Kong with HMG as a caretaker, with

UK having responsibility for the internal government and the

conduct of external affairs for an agreed term, or for

an indefinite period subject to termination by due notice.

17.

Such an arrangement could involve the incorporation

of Hong Kong into the PRC as a Special Administrative Region,

either from the outset or at a later stage. This would be

without modern precedent, but from the UK point of view,

major

no/legal

there would be no legal impediment provided that the Chinese

did not impose any unacceptable conditions, and provided British cour to continued to administer British law.

18.

Such a management contract would require changes to

present arrangements, and the PRC might demand some substantial

ones. Whatever arrangements were eventually agreed could be

in domestic law by or under the same Act of Parliament which would made legally effective by an appropriate British constitutional be requied to transfer sovereignty over the ceded Erritories to China. instrument, eg Order in Counei). The areas which would

require consideration include:

(a)

The Constitution:

HMG's aim would be to retain

effective control, and to ensure that the PRC had

no authority in Hong Kong). It might be that

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