XN000022-1996-01-11 — Page 9

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Governor: Well, I don't think that it's necessarily helpful to discuss or analyse visits like this in terms of whether or not people have made concessions or U-turns. But on the CT-9 we've always wanted, as you know, to ensure that we developed the port as effectively as possible and at the same time that we were able to increase competition in the port, because we think that's in the interests of those who use the port.

At their meeting last autumn, Mr Qian Qichen and Malcolm Rifkind agreed that we should all redouble our efforts to find an agreement on the CT-9 issue. What they've now accepted is the way forward for doing that, which involves, I hope, the operators, the consortia, reallocating the ownership of the berths between them - berths in terminals 1-9 in order to achieve the objectives that we've set of greater competition and effective development of the port. I don't think that that's at all a bad way forward and if the consortia can reach an agreement soon, that will be in the interests of Hong Kong.

Speaker: Mr Rifkind had met with the Chinese Foreign Secretary and had resolved the long-standing issue, namely Container Terminal 9. There were no signs before the visit and therefore some comments made in Hong Kong is that back-room diplomacy is a lot better than diplomacy in the form of a lot of noisy fanfare. Do you agree to that?

Governor: Well, I think that those who were taken by surprise by the agreement perhaps hadn't been looking sufficiently closely at what has been done and what has been discussed between Britain and China and Hong Kong over recent weeks or months, because what was agreed in Peking was a development of the discussion that took place in London. But it is true to say that there have been talks going on, quietly, on this commercial issue over the last weeks and months and obviously whenever you have an agreement the same is true of the Agreed Minute on the SAR passport whenever you have an agreement like that, it's the result of a lot of painstaking work before the done by experts and officials including the Governor of Hong Kong meetings take place.

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Speaker: For those who hold this view, I think they are implying that noisy fanfare with lots of smoke and no fire is the type of diplomacy that you have employed in the past. Would you agree that you have been excessively high-key in the past?

Governor: No, I certainly wouldn't. And most of the noise and smoke has not come from me but has come from those who attack me. I have been my usual serene, quiet, calm self and will continue to be. But you know, people have a tendency to apply a sort of moral equivalence or a political equivalence when one is attacked, even if you've been conducting an argument in a reasonable, quiet, calm, rational way.