HONG KONG LOCAL
CONFIDENTIAL
Q.
-
What will be your domestic priorities once you take up the
Governorship education, social welfare, housing?
A.
I do not think
think it would be right for me to comment at this
stage on matters of that kind. I shall of course want to
spend some time in Hong Kong, listen to people's views, and
discuss these things with my official advisers, and of course
with the Executive Council, before coming to conclusions on
matters of internal policy.
Q.
A.
Will you support direct elections to the Legislative Council?
As you know, a review is to take place this year of the
present constitutional arrangements.
The review, as
Ministers have frequently stated, will be an objective and
genuine one, with the aim of finding out the
the views of Hong
Kong people on various options for possible change. These
views will then be fully taken
fully taken into account in subsequent
decisions as to what, if any, changes should be made.
Q.
A.
Will your appointment/ Chinese sensitivities mean any delay
in the Review/ publication of the Green Paper?
I know of no reason for any change in the present general
timetable for the publication of the Green Paper. (If
pressed) Detailed arrangements
arrangements relating to the Green Paper
will be one of the matters which I shall wish to discuss with
HMG and Hong Kong Government officials in due course.
Q.
What is "the present general timetable"?
A.
The Hong Kong Government has stated in the past that
the
Green Paper will be published in Apriler Hay.te fror half of the year.
CONFIDENTIAL