DRAFT INAUGRATION SPEECH BY THE RT HON CHRISTOPHER PATTEN
As I prepare to accept the duties and burdens of office
as Governor, I find myself reflecting upon what our forebears might make of this occasion, of this city today.
Today Hong Kong once so rudely described by
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the
Lord Palmerston as "this barren island with hardly a house upon it"
is one of the greatest cities on Earth. It is a
very special city, a city made great not by its natural,
God-given advantages, not by the accidents of geography or
of politics, but by of the greatest asset of them all
enterprise, the energy, the vitality, the industry of its
six million citizens, underpinned by a foundation of sound
administration and the rule of law. Hong Kong is, in the
modern sense, one of the wonders of the world. Undaunted by
the obstacles in your way, you, the people of Hong Kong have
swept them aside and created here out the heart of Asia one
of the most spectacular examples of the virtues of a
economy known to man.
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Now, though, the people of this city face a new task.
It is a task as great and as momentous as your achievement
in creating this city. A task which will require all the
qualities which Hong Kong people have as second nature
resilience, determination, drive - but in still greater
measure. A task which, when we accomplish it successfully
as we are going to do will provide a shining example to
the world of partnership and co-operation between nations to
the good of all.
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What we have to do as we approach the 21st century
and laying the foundations in the next five years is to turn from earnest hope to firm reality that historic and
far-sighted phrase - 'one country, two systems.'
JB1AAD/1
JRB