XN000022-1996-10-02 — Page 14

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Governor: Well, I think I made pretty clear in my speech that unequivocal determination to assist the Chief Executive stops short of direct assistance to the "provisional legislature. I said that fairly clearly in my speech. I didn't spell out in terms exactly what sort of assistance we would give the Chief Executive, since I don't think it's reasonable for us to specify in advance of their being such a person, what exactly we'll do to help. We've made all the obvious preparations. We've been preparing accommodation, we've got a pretty good idea of the sort of people who could be made available immediately to a Chief Executive from the civil service but it would be totally unreasonable of me to face a Chief Executive designate when he or she took up, as it were, that shadow role with a list of all the precise ways in which we proposed assisting. What we can do is offer a Chief Executive an a la carte menu rather than a table d'hote and some people who I'm sure were elected to that job would want more assistance in some areas than others. Some might want more extensive back-up in terms of staff than others. I don't think I can pre-ordain those matters.

Question (Eric Hill, Asian Wall Street Journal): Mr Governor, sir, you've made the point very forcefully that you had the anxiety that some persons in Hong Kong had surreptitiously sought to lobby Beijing to block, to overturn decisions by your Government. In the interests of openness and accountability, could you tell us, have people been able to do so, to block the Government's decisions and could you tell us who these individuals are who have attempted to do so and perhaps have been successful?

Governor: Well, I can think of one or two decisions and you can think of one extremely well known one in which we refused to take any decision until we were able to take the decision that we first wanted to take which was in the interests of Hong Kong. Now, you know what I'm talking about. Everybody here knows what I'm talking about. I doubt whether there was any paragraph in my speech which would have gained more nods, even if some of them, to use a word I used in my speech, were surreptitious. People know that this has happened, they know that it's extremely damaging. They also know that it would be injudicious of an always judicious Governor to say exactly who he had in mind, but everybody I'm sure has their own list of names.

Question (Daily Telegraph): Governor, you said it was your frustration that you hadn't been able to put your ideas about Hong Kong, including the future (inaudible), why did you choose not to do that but particularly during the period of disagreement between Britain and China over electoral reform?

Governor: Well, I suppose it's fair to say that eventually they were determined those views democratically because the decisions on the pace of democratic development were made in the Legislative Council, but I think what you're meaning is why we didn't call a referendum. I don't think you're suggesting that I should have run for office, attractive as that proposition would have been.