Negotiated Crown Colony’s Return to China : Hong Kong Gov. Sir Edward Youde Dies

Sir Edward Youde, the governor of Hong Kong who represented the people of that territory in the talks that will return the crown colony to China, died in his sleep at the residence of the British ambassador to Peking, an embassy spokesman said Friday. He was 62.

British Embassy spokesman Tony Insall said Youde’s body was discovered early Friday.

Insall gave no cause of death but sources in Hong Kong said Youde, who underwent open-heart surgery before taking office as governor in 1982, probably died of a heart attack or stroke.

Youde’s wife, Pamela, flew to Peking todayfrom the ancient city of Xian, 600 miles southwest of the capital, before her husband’s body was removed to a mortuary at Peking’s Capital Hospital, Insall said.

Youde and a delegation of Hong Kong officials had flown to Peking on Monday for the opening of an exhibition of Hong Kong products and a Hong Kong trade office.

Youde was Hong Kong’s 26th governor since the territory on China’s southern coast came under British rule in 1841.

Under a Chinese-British agreement signed two years ago, the settlement of 5.5 million people will be returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 when the current lease expires.

In exchange, China promised to maintain the colony’s capitalist system for 50 years after the takeover.

Youde, who was Britain’s chief negotiator at the talks, entered the British foreign service in 1947. He was later posted to Britain’s diplomatic missions in China and Washington, and also served at Britain’s United Nations mission.

He was appointed Britain’s ambassador to Peking in 1974. Four years later, he returned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London as deputy undersecretary of state and chief clerk. He was knighted in 1977.