XN000022-1995-06-30 — Page 11

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Mirsky: ... suppose these struck you as fair and open....

Governor: We believe that the arrangements for this Legislative Council fall into that category. So there would have to be some very persuasive argument to justify terminating the life of this institution or agreeing to play a part in terminating the life of this institution before 1997. And we would obviously need to carry the Legislative Council with us on any such proposition. But I think that, while the best thing that could happen would be to leave the 1995 Legislative Council in place, with objective tests for legislators in 1997, if the Chinese side were to put forward proposals which were plainly fair and open, and which could command majority support in the Legislative Council, then that would open up new possibilities. I have to say that I think that would be a second best to continuing the 1995 Council; and I also have to say there isn't any sign of them doing that.

Mirsky: Except that Tsang Yok-sing has said this quite a lot. He's been saying it for a number of years. He said in the papers recently again, "It might be, if the British could be reasonable etc, etc, there might be some way of having an election that would see a reasonably representative LegCo appear in 1997."

Governor: All I can say to you is that the arrangements which were on China's side of the table for elections when the talks broke down in 1993 would not, alas, meet the sort of criteria which you have suggested.

Mirsky: No, but just as I could write Percy Cradock's letter to the Times about the court, I think I could write a little speech for you saying that the Chinese have now put forward some arrangements that seem to me to be fair and possible. They are not the best thing. Of course it would be best if LegCo went through. But it sounds to me as if now if anyone could stand and the LegCo that appeared in elections at the end of 1996 or at the beginning of 1997 were seen by the population of Hong Kong to be a genuinely elected one, it would not be as good as the through train, but surely anybody can see it's a hell lot better than an appointed LegCo.

Governor: Well, I think I see all those arguments, and it's a fascinating hypothesis, but I don't see much evidence that it's going to present us with the problem of saying yea or nay. And I think it would have to be a jolly convincing-looking Legislative Council for the one in 1995 to feel that we could entertain the proposition of supporting its election. But the only point that I want to make is that, for us, these arrangements are not a matter of face, they are a matter of trying to do the decent thing for Hong Kong. And I still hope that China will recognise that the sensible thing to do is to leave them in place.

End/Friday, June 30, 1995