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Governor: I don't doubt the importance of an aspiration for patriotism on the part of those who seek a place in public service and in a sense that is reflected in the sort of oaths or declarations that men and women make when they enter a parliamentary assembly or when they become a judge. But legislating precisely for degrees of patriotism, particularly if you insist on being able to define that patriotism yourself, can lead one into a situation in which one is applying to legislators and others not an objective tests but a subjective test. And that, the Honourable gentleman may recall, is one of the, perhaps, principle issues on which our discussions about electoral arrangements broke down in 1993. I have never been able to see any reason against an objective test for, for example, legislators carrying through on the train beyond 1997, but a subjective test is a very different matter and I think it's difficult to reconcile a subjective test with the rule of law. Conceivably, you can accommodate a subjective test within rules and within laws but you can't accommodate a subjective test within the Rule of Law.
Mr Sin Chung-kai (in Chinese): Mr President, just now Mr Lee Cheuk-yan asked about the vigil on June 4. If the Preparatory Committee wants a place reserved in Victoria Park for celebratory activities and if the Hong Kong Alliance next year on June 4, also wants a place for a vigil, then what will you do Mr Governor?
Governor: Well, it's an interesting hypothetical question. There's a board game which some people play at Christmas called Moral Dilemma, and I think there is a limit to the amount that I'm prepared to play that game in public with the Legislative Council.
But, let me just repeat something I said earlier. So long as I'm Governor, I shall want to ensure that issues like freedom of speech and freedom of assembly are exercised within the law, a law which reflects the international covenants which apply in Hong Kong and I hope, very much, that my successor will take exactly the same point of view. I think it would be difficult to explain were my successor to take a different point of view but that is I think to look a long way down the barrel to 1998.
Mr Sin Chung-kai (in Chinese): Mr Governor, does it mean that you can assure us that for 4 June, 1997, the Hong Kong Alliance can still hold a vigil in Victoria Park?
Governor: I'm not sure whether the application has yet been framed. What I can tell the Honourable gentleman, and I hope that this is not a point which anybody is likely to dispute, what I can tell the Honourable gentleman is that so long as I am the Governor, the law will be applied in the way I described.