WD-AFR-1993 7:56
Gallagher
0491 579838
P.02
MR CHRIS PATTEN
Gr
DAVID FROST INT
LONDON 4 APRIL 1993
MR PATTEN:
I do not think that is likely at all and they have asserted the
importance of cooperation.
There are all sorts of issues,
economic issues, on which we would welcome a bit more cooperation from China. But I am sure that we will get back into a dialogue. I am going to be Governor of Hong Kong, God willing, until 30 June 1997 and I am sure China will want to talk to the Governor of Hong
Kong between now and then.
INTERVIEWER:
Are there any circumstances at all in which Britain would delay
the handover of Hong Kong in 1997?
MR PATTEN:
None at all. We have agreed to that date, we have agreed, which goes back to an earlier question you asked, in the treaty between Britain and China, the so-called Joint Declaration, on ways in
And what the which we can guarantee Hong Kong's way of life. argument is about really at the moment, and it is why what I am doing is not, as you were suggesting, too late, what we are proposing is ways of electing the last Legislative Council under British sovereignty in a way which is clean and fair, that is what
the argument is about.