TNAG-2764-FCO40-3981-UK-Hong-Kong-Scholarship-Scheme-donation-to-the-UK-Governme-1993 — Page 66

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Reference

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SKTANG SCHOLL HIPS

FICE

RECEIVED IN EZDISTRY

18 MAR 1993

fice.

23

Ms Brooks

SK TANG BEQUEST: HOW TO PROCEED

DESK OFFICER INDEX

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

1. I have now taken over responsibility for the S K Tang bequest in Hong Kong Department. The Department has been discussing the issue of the bequest and how best to proceed with its administration with the Treasury Solicitors Office Further progress has been made since Ms Haspel last contacted you on this matter. An Opinion from the Law Officers in mid-January suggests treating the bequest as a 'money-box' under which the capital would be paid over to the Institute for Cancer Research (ICR) (one third) and the British Council (two thirds) on suitable terms. The capital would then be retained and administered directly by those bodies, with income being applied each year. There would in this instance be no need for separate trustees and the FCO would be exempt from the day to day administration of the two thirds interest devoted to UK/HK scholarships. The Opinion states that, in order to do this we would need two documents:

(i) A Declaration of Trust between ourselves and the British Council;

(ii) A Sign Manual direction which appointed two thirds of the total funds to the British Council to be held on the terms of that Declaration of Trust and one third to the ICR to be held on terms similar to those set out in the draft letter of intent of 30 January 1989.

2. We wish to submit to Ministers recommending this approach but before doing so we should like to be sure that you see no objection to our proceeding in this way.

3.

The idea of a Declaration of Trust was previously endorsed by the British Council in past discussions over the administration of the bequest. A draft was forwarded to us by them in 1988 which we felt to be over-elaborate and in some respects inconsistent with the terms of Sir SK Tang's bequest which required that the capital sum should remain intact. The British Council wished to be able to use both the capital and income, and seemed to want to assume an excessive degree of control over the fund. I would be grateful for advice on:

the essential elements we need to have in in our Declarartion of Trust with the British Council;

- how we might prune down the over-complex declaration produced by the British Council in

1988.

BROOKS.ICR.1003

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