FOREIGN SBC:
SPERCH
-4-
HONG KONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COXXXKCB - 15 JANUARY 1990
PORBIGN SECRETARY (CONTD):
For all those and other reasons, we must do what we can I
am talking of the British to ensure that the final chapter in our
long administration of Hong Kong 16 an honourable one and one which
ends successfully for you, That chapter is unique, the set of
problems is unique, because the basis of the future is not
independence but the basis of the future is one country/two systems.
That is a far-sighted concept; we have to make it work and
everybody know that is not easy, is not proving easy, will not prove
easy or straightforward. There are not any convenient precedents;
there are not any ready-made models to follow; there are problems.
there are setbacks; there are bound to be these from time to time,
but there is no alternative to making a success of this particular
enterprise.
The British Government cannot and has no intention of sitting
back and letting the clock tick quietly onwards towards 1997. The
choices and decisions we bave to take from time to time will be
hard, the choices and decisious which the Government of Hong Kong
will have to take from time to time will be bard, and we will take
those difficult decisions when they are necessary.
The framework is the Joint Declaration. I had nothing to do
with its origins, but I bave always felt that it was the best deal
that could have been secured for Hong Kong. It has its critics but
to those critics I would say: "Can you bonestly think of a better
alternative? Do you think that if a better Agreement could have
been reached, we would not have reached it? Do you believe that no
Agreement would really have been in the best interests of Hong Kong
as the clock ticked on?”