TNAG-1709-FCO40-2384-Hong-Kong-narcotics-offences-and-drug-trafficking-1988 — Page 143

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Article 11

Article 12

relevant documents had to be processed through either UK or China, undue delay would be caused.

Given that Hong Kong and UK/China have different standards regarding the controls over commercial carriers, it would be difficult for Hong Kong to enforce this article without degree of autonomy.

Paragraph 4 specifically requires that a Party should respond to requests from another Party for boarding, searching and seizing vessels in an expeditious manner. However,

if all such requests had to be channeled through UK/China, delay would be inevitable.

At present, Hong Kong enjoys a high degree of autonomy in law enforcement activities. Hong Kong and HMG authorities have always worked well together in this field. Nonetheless, despite the present satisfactory state of affairs we cannot necessarily rely on the same cooperation after 1997. We are therefore keen to put Hong Kong on a secure legal footing in this respect before 1997. We would be grateful for your advice as to how this might be achieved.

If

It was agreed in a Resolution of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs during its 32nd session that an open-ended (i.e. membership

ip open to any member state of the Commission) inter- governmental expert working group should tackle the next draft of the Convention. It is understood that the first meeting of this working group will be held in Vienna from 29 June to 10 July. you agree that our best approach would be to request a provsiion to permit separate law enforcement agencies and drug administrations in different parts of the territory of a state party to implement, administer and enforce the convention, then the UK representatives could take this opportunity to make this point. As China will be attending the working group meeting, we will be able to get some idea of their reaction to this proposal at an early stage before the convention becomes an International Right and Obligation proper.

I wish to make it clear that we are not now pursuing the idea of contracting party status for Hong Kong. We do, however, suggest that provision might be made for Contracting Parties to declare, upon ratification, that specified parts of their territory will implement the administrative and enforcement provisions of the treaty by themselves (i.e. through their own agencies and under their own laws). This would mean that other contracting parties should deal direct with those agencies rather than through those of the party making the declaration. If this is thought too wide, we feel that we should at least aim for a general article providing that a contracting party may designate for any part of its territory the appropriate authority through whom the obligations under the treaty will be implemented.

I am copying this letter to the Narcotics Control and AIDS Unit of the UN Department and the Drugs Branch of the Home Office for whatever comments they may wish to make. I should be grateful if you would pursue this question with them and let us know your thinking in due course.