TNAG-2152-FCO40-3071-Commonwealth-war-graves-in-Hong-Kong-1990 — Page 69

ME

Ms Mayer

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

2 Marlow Road Maidenhead Berkshire SL6 7DX

Telex 847526 Comgra G

Telephone Maidenhead 34221 (ext ....

Miss R M Marsden

Hong Kong Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

Dear Miss Marsden,

I po fm1273

Your reference

Our reference EXT 4/161

Date

Grateful for advice

RM18/1

Please read back papeit

then let's discuss.

17 January 1990

A

H K C 225/

nau

26 MAR 1990

GISTRY Lion Taken

-

HONG KONG POST 1997 ARRANGEMENTS

WAR GRAVES

FM, 511

RM"

Miss Marsden My's Major

21573 Tel issue

باشد

issued

14/3

225/1(39)

Having now received responses from interested parties I am writing to let you have the Commission's views on the proposals you handed me, and which we discussed, on 3 October 1989.

18

2. I must stress at the outset that the Commission remains firm in its desire to have a formal War Graves Agreement (WGA) established between its six member governments and the Chinese, comprehensively covering the Commission's interests in Hong Kong in the same way as its WGAS with many other countries. A memorandum on this objective was sent to Mr Powell with our letter of 16 January 1986 and our view was re-iterated in our letter of 30 January 1987, where we

in with other transitional arrangements and our desire for an

TH

(6) (86)

-10

explained our anxiety about having the Commission's interests tied HKC 223 1 independent agreement. With that letter we enclosed a first draft of

a WGA and we would like discussions to begin on this at the earliest possible stage, with a view to signature as soon as there is a body with which such an agreement can properly be concluded. The WGA would then be the basis of the Commission's tenure of the cemeteries.

3

We agree with the views of the Hong Kong authorities on the Deeds of Appropriation as set out in the memorandum on the future of Commonwealth cemeteries in Hong Kong which you handed to me on 3 October 1989. From our point of view, there is no need to pursue this aspect with the Chinese and we would certainly not want this done if it would divert attention from the need to obtain a comprehensive WGA, or jeopardise our interests generally.

4.

The Commission remains anxious that the Public Health and Urban Services Ordinance is suitably modified at an early date. You rightly refer to the wide powers in relation to general management provided for under Cap 132 and currently vested in the Director of Urban Services (DUS) as "the Authority". In our view paragraph 115(1), in particular, is wrong now and could be dangerous in future. We were not happy when the legislation was passed but we accepted that DUS was someone we could trust to look after our interests. This may not remain the case with a future "Authority".

(87)

(18