TNAG-1955-FCO40-2784-Trade-of-rare-and-endangered-species-in-Hong-Kong-1989 — Page 70

*

they

agreement could be reached to allow their stocks which

were ported from the EC, to be re-exported back to the

EC. I understand your officials will be attending the

,meeting and whilst I agree that we cannot be seen to be

weakening our position on our announced policy, I would

ask you to take into account the particular problem,

which has emerged in Hong Kong and of which I believe you

were not aware before announcing our policy change. I

believe a good case can be made to justify an exception

for the "EC ivory" now in Hong Kong and I hope your

officials will do so at the 27 July meeting.

Unlike Kenya and other east African countries, some

Southern African countries have a surfeit of elephants

and have not come out in opposition to a ban. At the

recent meeting of the African Elephant Working Group in

Gaborone, Cameroon was asked to take the views of the

various range states to try to establish a consensus

which would form the basis of a resolution to the October

CITES Conference. This report is due to be completed by

31 August and perhaps we could consider then how best to

deal with this problem (which, again, I believe was not

foreseen at the time of your announcement).

Care show