- 7
telephone or frequent contact between the staff or experts of the two JLG Offices, and then be confirmed by the JLG.
According
to
43.
а list provided by the British side,
Hong Kong will have to deal with several hundreds of multi-lateral or bilateral agreements within the coming eight year transition period before all existing rights and obligations could be safeguarded beyond 1997.
international
44.
As the number of issues handled by the JLG have gradually been increasing, the number of staff has also increased accordingly. In addition to the assistance provided by NCMA staff, the Chinese side have had to deploy more than twenty staff from Beijing to the Hong Kong Office in the China Resources Building in Wanchai.
the increasing number of issues to be handled, it is necessary to look for new office accommodation as well as additional staff
resources.
In view
of
a
45.
As for the office of the British side, with the support of the General Duties Branch, only limited number of staff are needed to handle the work.
46.
However, the establishment of the General Duties Branch had increased from the former 5 or 6 to 14 in the past two years. This figure does not include secretaries or typists.
47.
Officials of the British side explained, "Other departments of the Hong Kong Government also provide assistance if necessary. For instance, experts from the Judiciary also take part in discussions regarding the proposal to set up a Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong.
is not easy to assess the expenses involved."
48.
year
It
Another issue that needs to be resolved this arises from the fact that the Senior Representative of the British side, Mr. R. McLaren, is concurrently responsible for Asian affairs in the Foreign and Commonwealth be stationed permanently come to Hong Kong once a while his representative Mr. D. Martin takes charge on his behalf for the rest of the time.
49.
Members of the
Office. He therefore cannot ir Hong Kong. He can only month to attend meetings,
Chinese side indicated, "In
the second half of the year, there may be a lot of
issues which call for
Senior Representatives.
immediate response from the It is, therefore, impossible
for the existing situation to continue then."
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