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In another article, the magazine observed that the Chief Secretary made a speech on 24 November last year about individual freedom and HK being a free society. On the same day the Secretary for Home Affairs spoke about freedom of speech. The CS and SHA had implicitly outlined the factors needed to preserve HK's prosperity. Now the Attorney General had emphasised the importance of the legal system and the independent judicial system in the opening chapter of the HK Annual Report "HK 1983". His statement had in fact amplified the line of CS and SHA.
8.
SIR PERCY'S TERM EXTENDED:
Both the SCMP and Oriental Daily News used a despatch from their London correspondent, Rosemary Langford, reporting that Sir Percy Cradock's FCO service had been. extended, probably until the end of the year. A FCO spokesman described the extension as "not unusual". The Oriental Daily News speculated that Sir Percy's extended tour in Beijing meant that a timetable for the talks on Hong Kong's future had been fixed. Meanwhile, Mr. Alan Donald, a former Political Adviser, was tipped to succeed Sir Percy. The FCO refused to comment on this.
9.
PRESS LINES:
The media as a whole continued to remain relatively quite although the subject of the future is still a talking point in several papers.
The HK Economic Journal made some interesting comments. In an editorial on 30 March, the paper said the knottiest aspect of the 1997 issue was that even local residents themselves were indecisive on such questions as whether the British administration here should continue, whether HK should practise self-rule and whether HK already had a form of self- government free from outside political influence. In a second editorial, the paper said in future Hk could be run by a Government whose policy-makers were all local residents. But the post of Governor must continue to be filled by a British official as a symbol of Britain's involvement in the local administration when sovereignty had reverted to China. British administration in HK had been very successful and had taken care of the political and economic interests of all parties concerned. In a third editorial, the paper said local residents who were interested in politics, and the government itself, could learn a lot from the Singapore Prime Minister, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, who, before the independence of his country, had adopted a leftist stand in criticising colonialism but had damped down on the communists after gaining power. In yet another editorial, the paper said sarcastically that China would be as generous to HK people as it would be to Hu Na in order to coax her to return to the motherland. But HK people were not "grateful" because they had a freedom of choice. Few would accept the arrangements of the Chinese Government and the Communit Party.
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