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"LORD BUTTERFIELD.]
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a mwre glowing 106 for the... and loc families in the future. I fear that is because we diminish all the time the amount of money we are putting into research, which is a very important matter for students.
I wish to convey to your Lordships how much we are going to need strong nerves. We shall need to increase our personal information by listening to what these wonderful people of Hong Kong are telling us. We must have strong nerves in being willing to argue out with them whether the line that they are pursuing at any moment is right. Like the rest of us, they are empiricists and great opportunists. I apologise to your Lordships for another aside. A student said to me today: “I understand that your foundation gives £500 a year to the department where I work, but I do not seem to be able to get any of it to travel to London or to go to meetings".
I explained to him that the reason we give £500 to the department where he works is to offset all the incidental expenses that he incurs; for example, for electric light and even soap. As soon as that was explained to him he understood. That is part of my argument for embracing the need for the exchange of as much information as possible in the Far East and Hong Kong. The noble Lord, Lord Ennals, made the point that we are just beginning to make communication with Vietnam by using videos in order to try to slow down the flow of the boat people. That is another example of rather late communication with the Vietnamese.
We have heard from noble Lords two instances of the way in which the people of Beijing are prepared to embrace capitalism when it appears to be in their interests. These are pieces of information which we need to build into our own store of knowledge so that we are not blown off course by any unexpected development. The students said that there may be demonstrations in the streets of Hong Kong concerning voting. We shall need strong nerves to support our Foreign Secretary and the Governor if and when that situation comes about.
All the people I know who are involved with education in Hong Kong are absolutely committed to help the people there. My main signal to the students today was to say that all the trustees with whom I am concerned and who are interested in finding scholarship people in Hong Kong want it to be made quite clear that they intend to continue visiting Hong Kong while there is strength in their bodies, and long after 1997. There is no question that any of the people of that kind—any more than, I imagine, industrialists, commercial people and bankers-want to pull out from supporting this wonderful group of people.
7.20 p.m.
Lord Glenarthur: My Lords, of the issues of burning concern in Hong Kong at the moment, I should like to refer to two; the Vietnamese boat people and, almost as briefly, the process of democratisation.
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On the former, the current reduced rate of new arrivals compered with the scale we saw last summer, should my bull ng into a false sense of security. As my noble friend Lord Eden of Winton said, the sailing season will shortly be upon us again. The prospect of a further dramatic influx is all too real. I know from bitter experience how such an influx is likely to test, possibly even more dramatically than last year, the ability of Hong Kong to cope, and at the same time to strain further the patience of people in the territory. Whatever the facilities that might be developed to handle continued arrivals, not to take steps to discourage the continuation or the prospect of a further influx is unsupportable. I very much agree with the noble Lord, Lord Bonham-Carter, that the issue is one of international significance.
Voluntary repatriation is only one element in bringing this sad story to a satisfactory conclusion. Moreover, I doubt that its pace could ever be adequate. Beyond that I say only that I should like to examine in detail what has been achieved today at Geneva, glad as I am that agreement has been reached. We all share humanitarian concern for the boat people, but such concern is at least tempered when set against the true reasons for about 90 per cent. of them leaving. I sincerely hope that if there is to be a six-month moratorium on forcible repatriation, it will not lead to a new and damaging influx. I am bound to say that there is a real risk that it might.
I should like to turn now to constitutional reform. For some time the wish of Hong Kong was indistinct on how representative government should develop. There was no clear view about how the proportion and totals of elected and other representatives to compose LEGCO should be made. The Government argued, and it is understandable that they should still argue, that due regard must be given not only to any emerging consensus, but also to the likely impact of any decision upon China and what that impact might mean for the continuity of approach up to 1997 and beyond.
I do not think that we or the Chinese authorities can pretend that the ambiance within which earlier consideration of this issue took place is now the same as it was before 4th June. Not only are the events of those days fresh in all our minds, but since then we have seen dramatic moves towards democracy in eastern Europe. Surely there is a moral dimension in this. It really is difficult to encourage democracy in one part of the world and adopt a more restrained approach in another. Members of LEGCO know that should the Government support their consensus view on constitutional reform, the United Kingdom's opportunity to influence matters if changes are made post 1997 will be non existent. The force of the argument that adopting the consensus, based as it is partially on a degree of hope, is one of risk and of potentially damaging consequence is absolutely clear to me. I do not believe for one minute that it is lost on the people of Hong Kong. The greatest risk is that what we sign now could be unravelled in 1997, doing unique damage to the progressive mechanism of developing democracy and already transferred sovereignty.