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Fort Santo Domingo, Tamsui, Formosa (Taiwan): decommissioning as British consulate
Kaihsu Tai made this Freedom of Information request to Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The request was successful.
From: Kaihsu Tai
22 July 2008
Dear Sir or Madam,
Could you please provide any correspondence, dating from 1970 to
1984, relating to the decommissioning of the estate of Fort Santo
Domingo, Tamsui, Formosa (Taiwan) as a British consulate.
In particular, I am requesting correspondence on this matter:
1 between your Office and the governments of Australia and of the
United States of America,
2 between your Office and the authorities with claim of
jurisdiction over Taiwan at that time, and
3 between your Office and the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan.
Sincerely,
Dr Kaihsu Tai
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
23 July 2008
Dear Mr Tai
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request. It has been passed to
the relevant section within the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to deal
with. They will be in touch with you should your request need
clarification.
We received your request on 23 July 2008 and will aim to respond within 20
working days.
Yours
Samuel Osei-Wusu
Information Management Group
Information Rights Team
show quoted sections
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
20 August 2008
Dear Dr Tai,
Please find attached a letter referring to your recent FOI request.
Kind Regards,
Patrick Hopkins
Deputy Open Government Liaison Officer
Far Eastern Group
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
Visit our blogs at http://blogs.fco.gov.uk
***********************************************************************************
Visit [1]http://www.fco.gov.uk for British foreign policy news and travel
advice, [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk to read our blogs and
[3]http://www.i-uk.com - the essential guide to the UK
Please note that all messages sent and received by members of the Foreign
& Commonwealth Office and its missions overseas may be automatically
logged, monitored and/or recorded in accordance with the
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of
Communications) Regulations 2000. We keep and use information in line with
the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to
other UK government departments and public authorities.
***********************************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. http://www.fco.gov.uk/
2. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
3. http://www.i-uk.com/
From: Kaihsu Tai
21 August 2008
Dear Madam or Sir,
Thank you for your message indicating that you plan to give me a
response on this matter by 18 September. I look forward to
receiving it.
Sincerely,
Kaihsu Tai
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
18 September 2008
Dear Dr Tai
Please find attached a letter referring to your recent FOI request.
Regards
Tan
Case Manager, Information Rights Team
Information Management Group
FCO
Old Admiralty Building
London
SW1A 2PA
***********************************************************************************
Visit [1]http://www.fco.gov.uk for British foreign policy news and travel
advice and [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk to read our blogs.
Please note that all messages sent and received by members of the Foreign
& Commonwealth Office and its missions overseas may be automatically
logged, monitored and/or recorded in accordance with the
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of
Communications) Regulations 2000. We keep and use information in line with
the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to
other UK government departments and public authorities.
***********************************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. http://www.fco.gov.uk/
2. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
From: Kaihsu Tai
18 September 2008
Dear Madam or Sir,
Thank you for your message indicating that you plan to give me a
response on this matter by 2 October 2008. I look forward to
receiving it.
Sincerely,
Kaihsu Tai
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
2 October 2008
Dear Dr Kaihsu Tai
Please find attached a letter in response to your FOI request.
Kind regards
Patrick Hopkins
Deputy Open Government Liaison Officer
Far Eastern Group
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
WH2.301 King Charles Street
Whitehall London
SW1A 2AH
***********************************************************************************
Visit [1]http://www.fco.gov.uk for British foreign policy news and travel
advice and [2]http://blogs.fco.gov.uk to read our blogs.
Please note that all messages sent and received by members of the Foreign
& Commonwealth Office and its missions overseas may be automatically
logged, monitored and/or recorded in accordance with the
Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of
Communications) Regulations 2000. We keep and use information in line with
the Data Protection Act 1998. We may release this personal information to
other UK government departments and public authorities.
***********************************************************************************
References
Visible links
1. http://www.fco.gov.uk/
2. http://blogs.fco.gov.uk/
From: Kaihsu Tai
3 October 2008
Dear Mr Hopkins,
Would you please indicate the size of the paper hard copies
containing the information: I wonder whether it is convenient for
you to scan them and transmit electronically (using the
WhatDoTheyKnow mechanism, by email or over the web) please.
If this is not appropriate, I am happy to provide a postal address.
I thank you for your careful consideration.
Sincerely,
Kaihsu Tai
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
3 October 2008
Dear Dr Tai
I'm afraid there are too many paper documents for us to scan in, and we
just don't have the resource or time to do this. I have checked with our
FOI team and they agree. I would be grateful if you could therefore
provide a postal address, and I will ensure they are sent through by
return.
Many thanks
Patrick Hopkins
show quoted sections
Kaihsu Tai left an annotation ( 3 October 2008)
I have sent my postal address to Mr Hopkins, and am now expecting a response by post.
Kaihsu Tai left an annotation ( 4 October 2008)
I received about 48 pages of relevant documents from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office by post this morning.
From: Kaihsu Tai
4 October 2008
Dear Mr Hopkins,
I am pleased to confirm that this morning I received the documents
you sent by post yesterday.
Many thanks to you and your colleagues for your kind assistance on
this matter over the last few weeks.
Sincerely,
Kaihsu Tai
Kaihsu Tai left an annotation ( 6 October 2008)
The released documents did not contain the following two (perhaps interesting) items: a copy of the original 1867 lease with the Emperor of China (outwith the scope of my request), and the teleletter of 6 February 1980 from the Head of Chancery at the British Embassy in Peking. The last sentence of the latter prompted this curious comment from the Far Eastern Department: ‘Incidentally, while we respect the infallible theology of ——[’s] last sentence, we do not intend to take up the suggestion!’ (FCO letter FET 406/1 of 13 February 1980 to Political Advisor, Hong Kong). Ostensibly it suggested ‘to return it to the Government of China (in Peking) as the terms of the lease require’ (FCO letter FET 406/1 of 23 April 1980 to T J B George Esq., Peking); perhaps the rest of the letter was too sensitive to be released.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
6 October 2008
Scanned file received & uploaded by whatdotheyknow.com team
John Cross left an annotation ( 5 September 2009)
At the time of writing a link to this request is used as a reference for the following Wikipedia Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Santo_...
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Kaihsu Tai left an annotation ( 2 October 2008)
‘We understood your request relates to correspondence on the decommissioning of the estate property, and have therefore chosen material which relates to this. We have redacted information which is not relevant to this request.
‘Some information has been withheld under section 27(1) (c) of the Act – the interests of the United Kingdom abroad. This exemption requires the application of a public interest test. The effective conduct of international relations depends upon maintaining trust and confidence between Administrations. If the United Kingdom does not maintain this trust and confidence, its ability to protect and promote UK interests through international relations will be hampered.
‘There is a public interest in transparent and open government, and releasing information that would inform public debate on foreign policy issues. However, we have to balance this with the need for strong trust and co-operation from the countries on a range of issues on the UK's foreign policy agenda. This relationship of trust allows for the free and frank exchange of information on the understanding that it will be treated in confidence. If the United Kingdom does not respect such confidences, its ability to protect and promote UK interests through international relations will be hampered. Other Governments may be more reluctant to share sensitive information with the UK Government in future and may be less likely to respect confidentiality of information supplied by the UK Government to them, to the detriment of UK interests. For these reasons, we consider that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining this exemption outweighs the public interest in its disclosure.’
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