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The motion before us today calls on the Administration to do something quite different from the proposals I have just outlined - to use legislation to revoke the Tong's status as the leaseholder. In the free-for-all context of a Motion Debate and given the strong feelings that have been running on this issue, as politicians, Members may feel that nothing less than an extreme solution is what should be proposed. As legislators, however, they should consider very carefully what this would mean. It would surely not be right to enact legislation depriving a landowner of property legally come by. To do so in this case would ignore the legal rights of the Tong as holder of a lease from Government and create uncertainty in the minds of others as to whether the Government might one day seek to dispossess them in a similar way.
We must deal with the situation currently obtaining on Cheung Chau. But we must do so in a way that respects the legal rights of the parties involved. I am sure that when we bring the proposed legislation to this Council in the near future, Members will examine it soberly and with their traditional respect for the rule of law and abhorrence of arbitrary deviation from it.
Mr President, I can only agree with the first part of the original motion which is acceptable to the Administration. Neither the rest of it nor any of the amendments proposed would, in our view, provide a sound legal basis for the equitable solution which is required in this case. In the circumstances, the Officials will not support the original motion or any of the amendments and the Administration would have great difficulty in proposing legislation which would comply with any such motion. Similarly, should Members introduce legislative amendments or proposals in like spirit in due course, this also would present the Administration with considerable difficulty. I feel bound, Mr President, to counsel Members against raising the expectations of those they seek to assist that what they are proposing would achieve an easy and quick solution to the problem.
Thank you, Mr President.
End/Wednesday, January 18, 1995