S 363
}
HOME OFFICE
Queen Anne's Gate London SW1H 9AT
Miss Shelagh Brooks
Legal Counsellor
Legal Advisers
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1 2AH
BY FAX 071 270 2280
3030
Direct line 071-273 Switchboard 071-273 3000
Your reference
Our reference
Date
ра
37019.
10 December 1993
370/9
Dear Shelagh
(80
UK/HK SURRENDER OF FUGITIVES AGREEMENT
STRY
C
13 DE 1993
DESK OFF.
REGISTRY
INDEX
Action Taken
Thank you for your letter of 6 December, inviting us to comment on the draft negotiating brief for next week's talks. I was also grateful for sight of the letters from Bill Palmer and Ricky Rhoda. Sally Evans and I have discussed all of these, and what follows is a combined response. I should say that in general terms, we were very content with the draft. I have tried, so far as possible, to produce the following comments in relation to the order of the draft Agreement, and the draft brief.
General point
2. Sally has identified a third possible means of dealing with this problem - the making of a Statutory Instrument under paragraph 3(2) of the Schedule to the Hong Kong Act 1985. Each of the three possible means will require careful evaluation, so as to enable a decision to be taken as to the most appropriate route. We do not see any need to amend the brief, but we shall need to bear in mind the need not to commit ourselves to anything more than the current "exploring".
Articles 1 and 2
3. Upon further reflection, we suggest that we ought to have as our objective the removal of Article 1 altogether, and its amalgamation with a revised Article 2. What we have in mind is something along the lines of a compressed version of Articles 1 and 2 of the India Treaty, a copy of which is attached for ease of reference. We certainly want to explore the extent of Hong Kong's extraterritorial jurisdiction, and the principles upon which it is based, but we would not necessarily wish to object, per se, to dealing with offences which have taken place in the PRC (for example, terrorist bombings or hijackings, over which Hong Kong will presumably have jurisdiction by virtue of international Convention). We would be more
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