TNAG-1332-FCO40-1762-Future-of-Hong-Kong-White-Paper-on-the-Joint-Declaration-1984 — Page 245

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- 3 SEP 1984

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FROM:

A C GALSWORTHY, HKD

DATE:

31 August 1984

Sir P Cradock

Private Secretary

cc: PS/Mr Luce

PS/PUS

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

I submit Part One of a draft White Paper to be published simultaneously here and in Hong Kong after the initialling of the

1.

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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