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Governor: If you look back on the history of this interesting controversy. First of all, the Legco Manpower Panel said that it didn't want to discuss the bill which, I think, suggested to the Government that it wasn't hugely controversial. Secondly, Legco decided not to set up a Bills Committee which again, I think, encouraged the Executive to think understandably that we have enough support in the legislature. As things turned out, that wasn't the case. But I think frankly that the vote surprised everyone. I suspect it might even have surprised those who won it.
Question: There are some queries if you have some secret deals or a compromise between you and Mr Martin Lee, or Mr Lau Chin-shek personally?
Governor: I think I would like to make a substantial contribution to charity for everytime I've heard the word "secret deal" used in Hong Kong. As you well know, Hong Kong is about the most difficult place in the world to keep any secret whatsoever and I have no secret deals with anybody. I don't have any secret deals with Mr Martin Lee. I don't have any secret deals with Director Zhou Nan. I don't have any secret deals with anyone.
Question: Concerning the Court of Final Appeal, does the Government still plan to table the bill to Legco early next year no matter whether the two sides can reach an agreement in the JLG?
Governor: You've heard me talk about legislative timetable before and the fun of the hunt is that you try to get me back into a corner and give you very precise date in the calendar and I try to say that it isn't in fact sensible to do that. What I'll tell you is that in order to get the Court set up by the middle of 1996, we will have to get through the legislation by the end of this legislative session, so that we've then got the best part of the year to actually set up the Court and in order to get the bill through by the end of this legislative session, it follows, as night follows day, that we'll have to table the bill fairly early in the new year.
Question: Do you personally endorse the setting up of a human rights centre here and do
you think China should be consulted before setting up such a centre?
Governor: It has nothing to do with me.
Question: What is your personal opinion?