XN000022-1995-10-04 — Page 3

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Governor: Everybody knows what the British government's position is. And it was put as recently as last Friday, extremely forcefully by the Minister of State at the Foreign Office, Jeremy Hanley in an interview with the World Service, a lengthy interview which I don't recall many of you reporting. He underlined the British government's position on the Legislative Council three times. But let me set out again for you the position held by the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Governor of Hong Kong, all of us. We've just had extremely successful elections to the Legislative Council. Obviously I'm pleased that despite what some of the skeptics have said over the years, within weeks of those very successful Legislative Council elections, we've also had these agreements reached on matters of substance in London. There was some people who would have denied that that was possible. But it's happened and I'm pleased about it. Now those elections have given Hong Kong what Hong Kong was promised - a broadly based, credible legislature, the most democratic legislature in Hong Kong's history. Again I repeat. As promised in the Joint Declaration, we see no reason whatsoever why that Legislative Council shouldn't complete its term in 1999, shouldn't go through the transition with appropriate measures taken to note the transfer of sovereignty in 1997. Any dismantling of the Legislative Council in 1997 would have to be explained to the people of Hong Kong. It doesn't seem to me to be very conducive to winning hearts and minds. And I think it would be disruptive. That's the position which we've taken. That's the position which the British government has taken. That's the position which the British Foreign Office Minister, Jeremy Hanley, set out in terms last Friday.

Question: We learned that civil servants will be allowed to have official meetings with Beijing leaders. How will that impact your message to the Legislature next week; your policy speech?

Governor: I'll be setting out what was agreed yesterday in my speech to the Legislative Council next week in rather more detail. And I think I'd like to leave the broader details about the proposals until then. We've been discussing the proposals with senior officials in the last day. The Chief Secretary and the Secretary for the Civil Service have been talking to their senior colleagues. In turn, their senior colleagues are talking to their departmental staff. I think I can say that there is a great deal of support for this approach in the civil service. I think people welcome the fact that we've put behind us some of the suggestions that were being made in the spring which I don't think people were very enthusiastic about and that we've agreed on the proposals which the Hong Kong government put forward in discussions with Chinese officials in the summer.

Question: How far should these discussions go? What is your fear of having civil servants meeting Beijing leaders?