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What I want to assure the honourable gentleman of is this. That this issue will remain an important issue for the United Kingdom Government. It is not something about which the British Government has agreed to disagree to borrow a phrase. We have to take our responsibilities under the Joint Declaration seriously and intend to continue to do so. That applies to human rights and human rights legislation and it also applies to the question of democratic development.
I can assure the honourable gentleman of one other thing. We are told that an early priority in the months after July 1 will be to design election arrangements for the elected legislature after the handover. I think the United Kingdom, like other countries around the world, will be looking at those arrangements with great interest. We will be interested if those arrangements prove to be fairer than the present ones. We will be interested if those arrangements increase the suffrage in Hong Kong. We will be interested if those arrangements have the principal purpose of reducing those who can get elected on a democratic platform. Those are all issues which are going to be of considerable concern to the United Kingdom, the United States as the United States has made clear - and to others. And I think what we have to do is to maximise interest in those issues and concern about those issues by behaving in the way which is most likely to build an international consensus rather than in a way which may narrow international support for decency, good sense and the rule of law in Hong Kong.
Mr Albert Ho (in Chinese): Chairman, a short follow-up. Mr Governor mentioned a few points, obviously these are of concern to all of us here in this Council. We would do what we have to do to make sure that the election would be fair. Now what is of concern to us is that the Joint Declaration will apply to Hong Kong for 50 years. Now there is a blatant contravention of it and the Bill of Rights Ordinance. These things are getting escalated albeit partially, and all these problems are problems that we have to address.
The Governor mentioned taking the matter to the ICJ. Now in this booklet there are so many procedures. I hope that the UK Government would take the responsibility and take the first step. I think that in the next month the Human Rights Commission will hold the first meeting, a general meeting. I hope that the Governor would convey to the UK Government the message that the Bill of Rights does not really contravene the Basic Law and the Joint Declaration. I hope that he will arouse more concern in the Human Rights Commission. I hope that the Chinese Government will also pay attention to this regard.