TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1993
exactly how the electoral arrangements for 1995 should be
organised, because on that there is no agreement and there is no
prescription in the Joint Declaration or, for that matter, по
precise prescription in the basic law.
When I went to Hong Kong, the position of the United Kingdom
Government about the 1995 elections was clear. The position of the United Kingdom Government, advised by many now retired, wise public servants, was to increase the number of directly elected
members of the Legislative Council.
That was the published
The position of the pro-
position of the British Government.
democracy parties in Hong Kong, who, you will recall, had swept the board in the elections in 1991, was similarly to increase the
number of directly elected members of the Legislative Council,
preferably by having half the Legislative Council directly elected.
The position of China was different. The position of China
was that there should be no increase in the number of directly
elected members of the Legislative Council because that would
involve, Chinese officials said, a change in the basic law.
There was another point of view, another argument put by
China. Some would doubtless argue that, when China put this
point of view publicly it was in breach of the Joint Declaration. What Chinese officials said, very clearly, was that, in addition
to there being no increase in the number of directly elected
members of the Legislative Council, the Governor of Hong Kong
should not appoint before 1997 to his Executive Council directly
elected legislators, so that others who were members of the
Legislative Council could continue to be but leading Liberals who
/HAD BEEN