XN000022-1993-05-04 — Page 46

TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1993

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MR. BERGER: What do you tell the nervous

businesspeople in Hong Kong when they say you're just

stirring up trouble with Peking; we have to live here when

you leave?

GOVERNOR PATTEN: Yes, some of them do, though I

know that not all of those who criticize are in that

category. There are quite a few who are robustly critical

who have, like me, a British passport or a Canadian

passport or an American passport.

But I do think very hard about the almost 6

million people in Hong Kong who will be there after 1997.

And that I think, as well, that if I am not standing up

for their way of life before 1997, there's rather less

chance of anybody standing up for their way of life after

1997.

A more fundamental point that I try to put to the business community is one that I touched on in my

remarks earlier. Hong Kong hasn't been successful just

because of the capitalist model of allocation of

resources. Our way of life is about much more than

capitalism. It's, if you like, about market economics

operating within rules, within regulations, within the

rule of law. Erode the rule of law and you knock away the foundations of Hong Kong's prosperity.

How can you

guarantee a commercial contract if you haven't got the

rule of law fiercely and fearlessly implemented?

/So businessmen