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Public Order Ordinance
The Post reported that in an apparent turn-around, the Director of Broadcasting, Ms Cheung Man-yee, yesterday spoke out in favour of the Public Order (Amendment) Ordinance. Only 10 days ago, Ms Cheung backed Radio and Television HK staff who issued a statement which condemned the ordinance as being "against the spirit of common law". Ms Cheung told the Post yesterday that the ordinance was not in itself unreasonable and in general was an improvement on the original press bill. The Standard reported that Legislative Councillor and President of the Baptist College, Dr Daniel Tse, was unsuccessful in swaying his students from their disapproval of the ordinance. Meanwhile, two Hong Kong Journalists' Association representatives would fly to London on Friday to meet British politicians and press for a review of the ordinance, the papers said. The Foreign Correspondents' Club was awaiting a reply to its request for a meeting with the Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe.
Vietnamese refugees
The Standard quoted a visiting MP, Robert Atkins, as saying that the United Kingdom would have no moral obligation to accept Vietnamese rofugees from HK after 1997. He said that though there had been no discussion on the issue so far members of Parliament were of the opinion that when HK returned to China, Britain should accept no more refugees from here. The Post reported him as saying 'he would ask the UK government to accept a token number of Vietnamase
refugees from HK in order to encourage other countries to do the same. According to the Standard, Canada had decided to slash its quota of Vietnamese refugees from HK to 500 this year. The figure was less than half the total number last year.
Urban Council
The Standard reported that two Urban Council veterans, Dr Kim Cham and Mr Philip Kwok, would bid farewell to the municipal body when their term expired at the end of the month. There was speculation that the government wanted to free Dr Cham, appointed to Urbco in 1976, to take up a more important role as an Executive Council member. He had sat in the Legislative Council since August 1984.
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