24-APR-1992 16:46
FCO NEWS DEPT
24THER=1772
FOREIGN SECRETARY
A
-
INT NEWSNIGHT
24 APRIL 1992
071 270 3734
P.03
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
I have received a deluge of advice from people in Hong Kong about
what kind of person they want as the new Governor and out of all
that one thing has been very clear, a lot has been contradictory,
but one thing has been clear, their main worry has been that we
might, because it is so difficult and there are problems, we might
push Hong Kong away from the centre of our attention, we might
send somebody who was not going to compel attention back here in
Britain. And the first reaction from Hong Kong suggests to me
that they realise and welcome that we have in fact chosen one of
the four or five top people in British political life.
INTERVIEWER:
Why did you not consult a number of people in Hong Kong before you
told them that it was Chris Patten?
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
Because that is not, I believe, what they expected or required.
INTERVIEWER:
We have been talking to Emily Lau and she said she would have
liked to have been consulted?
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
Yes, there would have been, in fact quite clearly there was from
the advice which I have had, a very considerable disagreement
about names. What they do and did require is someone with