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MR ROBERTS... Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Sorry to drag you here at this early hour but the Minister has a very early departure for Singapore and Jakarta so I think I would like to start as soon as possible to give you a chance to
ask as many questions. The Minister will first of all make a few introductory remarks and we will be happy to take your questions if you will identify yourselves and your organisations in doing
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Minister.
then
MR RENTON:
Good morning. It is very pleasant to
see so many of you here. Thank you for coming. I would like to start my few opening remarks with a quotation from Deng Xiaoping who is reported to have said:
"I am not scared of heaven or earth but only of reporters
from Hong Kong!"
After four days here I am flattered by the degree of attention
Now I that you have given me; I know exactly how he feels!
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would not pretend to be an instant expert on Hong Kong after these past four days but have some impressions, some very strong impressions, on my first visit after a gap of nearly 10 years and I would like very quickly to share some of these with you.
First, and most important for me, I have had some extremely worthwhile meetings with the Governor and officials, with members of EXCO and LECCO, and on one privileged occasion with members of a district board and many others. I hope very much that on future visits I can fill some of the gaps; but in these many conversations I have I think, learned a good deal about what the people of Hong Kong think and what they want. Yesterday was, as we all know, a historic day for LEGCO and a most important day for all the people of Hong Kong. I was privileged with two parliamentary colleagues, Sir Peter Blaker and Sir Paul Bryan to attend the first session
In Britain we fully of Legislative Council with elected members. understand the need for Hong Kong to develop its own system of representative government in accordance with its own needs and