TNAG-2635-FCO40-3826-Future-of-Hong-Kong-nationality-British-undertakings-1992 — Page 62

Mr Cox

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HKD 340/3

77

LIST OF BRITISH UNDERTAKINGS

1.

2.

Reference Sir John Coles' manuscript note of 17 August.

Letters were sent to all the firms/companies' on Hong Kong's list. No replies were received either from the Grampian Regional Council or Freeman Fox and Partners. Further investigation showed that Freeman Fox and Partners no longer existed. We telephoned the Grampian Regional Council who informed us that they were a corporate body.

3.

I have now managed to discover that Freeman Fox and Partners were taken over in 1987 by Acer Group of Consultants. This firm very kindly agreed to do a little research for me and have confirmed that Freeman were indeed incorporated as a firm thus qualifying as a British Undertaking.

4.

As for the Grampian Regional Council I have been in touch with them again to clarify their status. They were not too sure at first but told me that the Council had been set up under the Scottish Local Authority Act of 1974. This would make them a statutory body which, according to legal advice I have received, does not qualify them to be a British Undertaking.

5.

I have now amended the submission accordingly.

Woodrow

J Woodrow

Hong Kong Department

WH 312 270 2656

19 August 1992

btsh.udtks.BTC

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