XN000022-1995-10-19 — Page 10

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Chief Secretary: I'll repeat for your benefit. I'm not going to comment on security arrangements. You can pose your question in any other different way, the answer will still be the same.

Question: How many security men do you have attached to your..

Chief Secretary: I'm going to comment.

Question: Mrs Chan, how are you going to comment on the Bill of Rights...

Chief Secretary: I think you will see from the community comments from any quarters there is a great deal of concern at any suggestion that the Bill of Rights will be scrapped. I will reiterate that we are satisfied that all our existing legislation, including all the amendments to existing legislation that we've made the past few years, were to ensure that the legislation are fully in conformity with the Bill of Rights and with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. As you know, the Basic Law actually entrench and say that this international convention will continue to apply to the SAR Government after 1997. So, we have duty which we have fulfilled and we will continue to fulfil to make sure that all our laws fully comply with the international covenant.

Question: Do you mean that Government...

Chief Secretary: We will be expressing our concerns to the Chinese side at the next JLG.

End/Thursday, October 19, 1995

Government shares concerns about unemployment

The Government shares concerns about jobs and will do every thing in its power to reduce unemployment, the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, said today (Thursday).

Addressing a joint luncheon of Hong Kong chambers of commerce, Mr Patten said he was surprised by remarks attributable to the business community that the Government should attempt to "kick start" the economy and spend its way to faster economic growth and to full employment.

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