[SJAADA]
M V Stone Eq Security Branch
Government Secretariat HONG KONG
233 4439
HKK 383/1
16 May 1986
COLONIAL PRISONERS REMOVAL ACT
1. I a m sorry to have taken so long to reply to your letter of 31 January, which as you will appreciate has necessitated further consultation with our Legal Advisers and the other Departments involved.
2.
A s you say in your letter, we are at one except on the question of whether Hong Kong or the United Kingdom initiates the removal procedures. I mote that Hong Kong are unlikely to wish to
have prisoners removed from the territory, and indeed did not intend to suggest anything to the contrary in my Letter of 12 December./ However, our Legal Advisers and the Ministry of Defence both remain firm in the views I summarised on their behalf in my Letter to y ou of 12 December.
3.
We
of to
To overcome this impasse I would suggest that we recognise a distinction that exists
in many other areas of HMG's relationship with the Hong Kong Government, i.e. between formal and informal processes of consultation. should not I believe allow ourselves to arrive in a situation whereby it is
theoretically possible that the Secretary State would formally request the Hong Kong authorities remove a prisoner, and they would then formally refuse. No amount of informal consultation (on the lines of paragraph 5 of your Letter) will guarantee that such would not occur. However if we recognise that this need not preclude informal contacts between HKG and HMG (initiated by either side, and not necessarily by HKG) on whether the Governor might request, and the Secretary of State agree to, a prisoner's removal, then this would enable us to agree in principle that once the groundwork was completed satisfactorily a formal
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