XN000022-1995-05-12 — Page 4

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Question: On the court of Final Appeal, will the next round of Joint Liaison Group talks later this month be the last before Government puts through the Bill on the Court of Final Appeal?

Governor: I would like to think that there could be an agreement at those talks. In which case they would be the last. We're trying to find a way forward with the Chinese side and with the whole community. As you know the Chinese side have had the Bill for a year and they still haven't said in what way the Bill differs from the agreement that we reached in 1991. And it was an agreement. The Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom and the PRC, had you remember met in Peking and they discussed this matter and following that meeting there was an agreement in the JLG and it's only recently that one or two Chinese officials have rather puzzled the rest of us by saying "Oh, no, it wasn't really an agreement at all." When is an agreement not an agreement. It was an agreement and I think that the people of Hong Kong expect me to implement it and get the court set up in good time before 1997.

Question: If there is no agreement, will you shoot through...

Governor: I always try to be positive. One of my resolutions now I am 51, even more positive. So all I will say is that all of us are very curious about what it is that the Chinese side find difficult about our Bill. Why not ask them?

Question: Governor Patten, in the case of Mr Li Kwan-ha, the ex-Police Commissioner, will the Government take any action against him?

Governor: What we are doing at the moment is trying to find out what exactly the facts are. We take an issue like this very seriously. The rules for civil servants and for all public servants are very clear. There is no doubt about them. And they are clear for an excellent reason. When civil servants retire many of them still have many years of service which they can provide to the private sector in the community. And they've gone on from the time in the civil service and they've done outstanding jobs elsewhere in the community. We can all think of some who are doing that today. What the community needs is the reassurance that any move to the private sector will be entirely above-board. They don't want to think that there would have been or could have been any conflicts of interests in a public servant's career. And it's imperative that we do everything possible to retain the confidence of the community in those arrangements. It's unfair to other public servants if those arrangements are brought into dispute, if they are shadowed by controversy. So, we've doing what you expect us to do. We're making enquiries to find out what exactly has happened in this case and I very much hope that at the end of the day we'll find that what has been done has been within the letter and the spirit of the very clear rules that are in place for all public servants. I repeat that it's not an insignificant issue. It matters for the community and it matters for all those excellent serving members of the disciplined forces, it matters for all those serving civil servants who can contribute more after their retirement from the public service to the community and want to be able to do so in a way the rest of the community. can feel is without any compromise of their position as public servants.