TNAG-2659-FCO40-3855-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-1992 — Page 44

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HKD 406

01 APR 1992

INUL

Mr Morris

HKD

FROM:

Miss S Brooks

Legal Counsellor

DATE:

17 March 1992

¡STAY

CC:

Mr Savage

ZB

Manager, Area One OED

* For "clance", read

i

Special Condition

SB

PRIVATE TREATY GRANT: COLVIN HOUSE SITE

1.

In your un-dated manuscript minute you asked me for views on Mr Jarvis's letter of 5 March. In order to meet the concerns expressed in FCO telno 274 of 21 February, Building and Lands Department have suggested a new form of words for the last three lines of Clause 11(c). The wording proposed by Building and Lands Department would allow the British Council to occupy an area greater than 6,500 sq metres if this were approved by the Departmental Director at his discretion. This allocation would come out of the total 19,000 sq metres allocated in Clause 7 to the British Consulate-General and its ancillary accommodation and to the British Council. However, this new wording still does not enable any space which might be spare within the British Council's 6,500 sq metre allocation to be allocated to the British Trade Commission or to other British Government bodies, eg the Overseas Trade Board or Northern Ireland Development Board.

2.

The problem seems to be more to do with Clause 7 than Clause 11(c). Whether or not the British Trade Commission, the British Overseas Trade Board or the Northern Ireland Development Board could be accommodated in the land set aside for the British Consulate-General and the British Council depends upon whether the Director of the Building and Lands Department will consider that the accommodation for such bodies amounts to 'such ancillary accommodation as may be required for the purposes of the Consulate-General' What constitutes ancillary accommodation is to be decided by the Director and his decision is final. It would obviously be desirable to remove the reference to the Director's decision.

3. Consular functions include the furthering the development of commercial and economic relations between the sending and receiving states and ascertaining by all lawful

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