5
Just say once again that all of us will, I am sure, be pleased that Mr Qian and Mr Hurd are meeting once again. This is one of their regular series of meetings. And we hope that the meeting will bring in due course good news for Hong Kong and good news for elsewhere in the region and in the world where Britain and China have their shared concerns and shared interests. The important thing is that the Foreign Ministers are meeting, are talking, are discussing matters which concern both sides. Thank you very much.
Question: What can you say about the smuggling into China...
Governor: No, I think you are a little confused there. We are of course discussing the exact delineation of territorial waters. But I don't think that is remotely relevant to the case the other day. There is no argument I think put forward by the Chinese side relating to the exact line in the territorial waters. The Chinese side have offered several explanations of what happened. But I don't think any of those explanations suggested that somehow there was confusion about which territorial water the incident took place in. The truth is every body I think is fairly clear in their own minds what happened. We are glad that there has been a reduction in this sort of incidents over the years. We don't want to see any more incidents like this. The best way of bringing this incident to a close and the best way of ensuring that this incident does not make it more difficult to establish the sort of harmonious relationship we would like is to return the vessels and the Hong Kong residents forthwith, not at some indefinite time in the future but immediately. There is no question about the jurisdiction in this case. So I hope that we will have through diplomatic channels which is how very properly and moderately we have been pursuing it. I hope that we will have a response through diplomatic channels as soon as possible. Thank you very much.
End/Thursday, April 6, 1995