XN000022-1996-04-27+28 — Page 2

Transcript of Governor's media session

Following is the transcript of the media session by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after attending the ICFTU International Conference this (Saturday) morning:

Question: (on the meeting between CS and Mr Lu Ping)

Governor: I spoke a couple of times in the telephone to the Chief Secretary yesterday evening. I was pleased that she'd had a good meeting with Director Lu. She'll be obviously making a fuller report when she comes back and I'm looking forward to having a meeting with her early on Monday morning to find out exactly what was said and discussed in detail. But obviously I think the whole community will have been reasonably pleased by the confirmation by Director Lu that he wants to ensure the civil service has as smooth a transition through 1997 as possible. And I think that the community will have been pleased as well to hear Director Lu repeating what Malcolm Rifkind heard from Mr Qian Qichen last week, namely that there's no question of the Chinese side trying to set up a second power centre, as it's called, before the 30th June 1997. We're interested of course to hear Director Lu's comments on the second runway for the airport which I think will be one of the next important infrastructure developments here in Hong Kong. And I'm pleased that he's going to have a look at the question of franchises for mobile phones. The wrangle over that has been going on for far too long. It's an issue which goes right to the heart of Hong Kong's autonomy in commercial and economic matters and the sooner it can be resolved the better.

Question: Do you think there will be more frequent meetings between Mr Lu Ping and Mrs Anson Chan instead of you?

Governor: I think the whole community is pleased that there are meetings whether they're with Mrs Chan or other senior members of the civil service, though I think most of the polls suggest that the community thinks that it would be sensible for Director Lu to implement the agreement in the Memorandum of Understanding on the airport and see the Governor. I don't think anybody is in any doubt who the Governor is. If you read the united front newspapers day after day, they don't think to be under any illusion of who the Governor is.

Question: What do you think about the plan to transform Government House into a museum of colonialism and the triumph for liberation in 1997?