GIDEON:
FOREIGN SEC 1NT
BRIAN HAYES SHOW LBC
17 MAY 1989
-32-
I think this is not a very fair representation.
I am from
Hong Kong and I do not see that the... and the Communist Party are
so stupid, so to say, as to fight in an election in a very outright
format. I think the Hong Kong people are very shrewd and very
clever.
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
I agree with you about the shrewdness of Hong Kong people and
it is for that. reason that We have been paying throughout all the
discussions that are taking place on this so much attention to the
diversity of opinions held in Hong Kong, You realise that the
various committees that are concerned in drawing up the Basic Law in
advising on it, they all include many representatives of the people
of Hong Kong, many of whom are expressing different polula of view.
Some of the people who are most cautious in the arguments about the
pace of change towards democracy are themselves people from long
Kang and that is why it is a subject of such lively interest and why
it 16 50 bmportant to lay and get it right, judging the opinionc ac
best we can from day to day and month to month. That is the task
that ic now being undertaken as I say with the important.
participation by the Chinese as they draft the Basic Law.