1.
Remarks by Chief Secretary
Following is the transcript of the remarks made to reporters by the Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, before leaving for Beijing this (Thursday) afternoon:
CS: As you know, I'm taking the flight this afternoon to go to Beijing. I hope to be able to continue my discussion with Mr Lu Ping tomorrow on a whole host of transitional issues, including the position of the civil service, co-operation with the Preparatory Committee and with the Chief Executive Officer (Designate). I very much hope that we will make good progress at this next round of discussion and that I will have some good news to bring back to the people of Hong Kong on my return.
End
Governor meets three legislators
The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, today (Thursday) held a meeting at Government House with legislators Tsang Kin-shing, Andrew Cheng Kar-foo and Yum Sin-ling at their request. During the meeting, the question of recent events during the visit of Director Lu Ping was discussed.
After the meeting, a spokesman for Mr Patten said the Governor had made it perfectly clear that while he would always resolutely defend and uphold the rights of Hong Kong people to demonstrate and protest peacefully, he would never excuse breaches of the law or rowdy behaviour.
While the Governor understood the frustration of those who had a legitimate argument to put to others who would not listen, the Hong Kong way was to express these feeling through rational dialogue and robust debate.
The spokesman said Mr Patten also reaffirmed his support for the firm and fair way in which the Police had handled recent events. He praised them for their restraint and good sense in extremely difficult circumstances.
The spokesman added that Mr Patten had once again underlined his belief that the best way to avoid such incidents was for Chinese officials and their advisers to involve all shades of opinion, particularly those whose voices represented majority opinion in Hong Kong, in the political process.