13:11
FCA SERUILE:
TRANSCRIPT A FORBIGE SBC
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HONG KONG PC- 4 JULY 1989
PORDIGE SECRETARY:
They have been taken into account as fully as possible
without my being able to see them for myself here.
QUESTION:
Sir Geoffrey, you have said that the Joint Declaration offers
the boot possible guarantee of Hong Kong's future but how can you
convince Hong Kong people to believe that the binding of the Joint
Declaration will not be revoked after 1997?
FORRIGE EXCRETARY.
Vhat I have said is that that proposition is in substance
comon ground because that is the view expressed by AXELCO) as by the
Foreign Affairs Committee. Almost everyone, not everyone, but
almost everyone who has considered it has proclaimed the Joint
Declaration ac in itself an achievement.
They have all joined with
me in saying that confidence in it has been seriously weakened by
what has happened in Peking but that we have to start from it as the
beat definition of the safeguards that people need to consolidate
and put in place more firmly.
So we ctart from that and that is why I go on to say that it
is for the leadership in Peking now to begin taking action after
action to holp restore some confidence in their commitment to it.
It will take a great deal of time and there is a huge gap of broken
confidence to be overcome.