TNAG-1332-FCO40-1762-Future-of-Hong-Kong-White-Paper-on-the-Joint-Declaration-1984 — Page 225

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DATE: 31 August 1984

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Sir W Harding

Mr Goulden, News Dept

Miss Neville Jones, Planning Dept

Mr Bacon, Parliamentary Unit

Mr Bickford, Legal Advisers

Mr Elliott, FED

Mr Walker, Research Dept

FUTURE OF HONG KONG: WHITE PAPER

1. I submit Part One of a draft White Paper to be published

simultaneously here and in Hong Kong after the initialling of the

agreement at the end of September. Part Two will consist of the Joint

Declaration and Annexes themselves, Part Three will be an explanation of

those documents, and Part Four will consist of appended relevant documents. The draft incorporates comments from Hong Kong and Peking.

2. On a particular point the Secretary of State commented to me that he

would like to present the fact that the agreement would not be open to

amendment as a normal situation with regard to negotiated international

agreement Paragraph 26 does this. I have however for the moment

retained the additional sentence explaining that the Chinese Government has stated that it will not accept any amendments. This for two

reasons. The first is that there are precedents for amendment of draft

agreements after comments by national legislatures. The second is that

there is a tendency in Hong Kong to blame the British Government for

this situation.

3.

I should be grateful to know how the Secretary of State wishes to

clear the White Paper with the Prime Minister and other Ministers. One

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