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Governor: No. I do think that the more effectively we govern Hong Kong and the more effectively the legislature contributes to that process the more difficult it would be for anybody to carry conviction in arguing that the legislature should be thrown out on its ear in 1997. Even though I say it myself, I suspect that's a statement of the blindingly obvious but there is no, as it were, conditional clause in all that. I just note one can't help doing so the extraordinarily moderate way in which the debate was conducted during the Legislative Council campaign, the remarkably magnanimous ways in which people dealt with both victory and defeat after the polls had closed, and what people have been saying since then about their determination to try to build co- operation, to try to build broad consensus. And all that seems to me to be very healthy and good for Hong Kong; much healthier and much better for Hong Kong than threatening to tear the Legislative Council down.
Question: (Follow up) Are you in effect saying then, Governor, you have done all that you can do to this point and now it is up to the legislators themselves to try to work out how they can carry through '97, if indeed they can?
Governor: No, because I will continue to assert, just as the British Government continues to assert, just as, to be frank, though they are only interested by-standers, governments around the world continue to assert, that it would be in Hong Kong's best interests and everybody's best interests for the Legislative Council to go through to the end of its term. I certainly don't intend to do anything which makes that more difficult and I will do everything I can to make it easier to achieve what should be an objective which everybody shares.
Question: (SCMP) Governor, you said you want a modern education but you didn't mention much about higher education in your speech. Why?
Governor: Well, I did. I did - with great respect - I mentioned both the huge increase that we have made in research spending in our universities, and the number of graduate students we are supporting, but the full account of our tertiary policy is set out in the policy commitments from the Secretary for Education and Manpower. If I had gone through everything in the policy commitments my speech would have been even longer than it was and that would have been unfair to everyone, including the Governor.
Question: You propose to set up an AG office, are you expecting a deluge of flooding of private members' Bills in the LegCo?
Governor: I'm proposing to set up a what?
Question: You propose to set up an AG office.
Governor: An Attorney General's Office?