XN000022-1995-07-19 — Page 2

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Transcript of the Governor's media session

The following is a transcript of a question and answer session with the media by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, on his arrival at the airport from Britain today (Wednesday):

Governor: I've had a short but very useful visit to London. I had meetings there as you know with the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the new Foreign Minister, the new Minister of State in the Foreign Office who is going to take responsibility for Hong Kong and related matters. I also saw the Labour Party's chief foreign affairs spokesman Robin Cook, the Liberal Democrat's spokesman Sir David Steel and a number of senior Foreign Office officials. So we had quite a busy programme for a couple of days. During those discussions, we obviously reviewed the progress that has been made in the last few months in resolving some of the outstanding issues of the transition. I think there is some satisfaction at the progress that we achieved recently. There are obviously everybody is keen to see that progress solidified by the passage of the Court of Final Appeal Bill by the Legislative Council before the end of this legislative session. There is a great deal of interest in the United Kingdom about the outcome of that legislation which is so important for Hong Kong and its future. We also considered looking forward, preparations and arrangements for Vice-Premier Qian Qichen's visit to London. We very much hope that will mark a further step forward in our relations and in the resolution of the problems that remained to be sorted out before 1997. Nobody wants to place too much weight or emphasis on one visit or one meeting. But we do all hope that the meeting will mark further substantial progress and I hope that view is shared by Chinese officials too. It's nice to be back.

Question: Mr Governor, have you decided to delay the Policy Speech for a week because of the meeting between the PM and Qian?

Governor: We are talking to the Legislative Council about that. Obviously we are keen to take account of their views on the issue. I think there is a general feeling that it might not make too much sense for me to be speaking at the same time as Qian Qichen is talking to ministers in London because things may come out of those discussions which would have a relevance to my Policy Address and I know that people in Hong Kong would want to know the conclusions from that visit, from those discussions. So, there is obviously some sense in delaying the policy address by a week. We're discussing that with Mrs Tu and others at the moment.

Question: Is it a way to consult Mr Qian on your coming Policy Address?