XN000022-1996-10-02 — Page 17

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I think it is reasonable to say that the benchmarks I set out are a reflection of the sort of questions that I get and other Hong Kong Government officials get when we are going around the world expressing our overall confidence and optimism in Hong Kong, albeit, I hope, in a rational and credible way.

Question (The Times): Governor, you laid great stress on the importance of the present LegCo and you made some unequivocal remarks about the provisional legco. Can you finally give us your view of whether the provisional legco as planned is a violation of any kind of law? But more important, in terms of your benchmarks and your hopes for Hong Kong, if the present LegCo does not ride over into 1997, do you think of that as a deadly if not a fatal handicap to the success of Hong Kong after 1997? Is it so important that it really makes you feel some despair?

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Governor: I think though I will answer the first question as sensibly as I can - I think the second question is the more interesting and difficult one. I don't think that a decision to dismantle the existing Legislative Council would represent anything other than a handicap. I very much hope that it's a bad decision and a bad policy which could be put right in a reasonable amount of time. I spelt out today some of the things that, if this does happen, the world will be looking at in terms of electoral arrangements, to judge whether they are fair and open or not. The trouble about the decision to dismantle the legislature is, as I think I expressed it pretty clearly in my speech, it does raise questions in people's minds about commitments to other aspects of Hong Kong's way of life. And I think that it also inevitably makes people worry about the rule of law, about freedom of speech and so on because of the extent to which a fairly elected legislature is at the heart of that fabric of civil society.

So my simple answer to your question is that it is certainly a handicap; I very much hope that it would not be a fatal handicap. Because all of us, repeat all of us, want to see Hong Kong succeeding, whatever the challenges, and succeeding spectacularly well in the future.

On the first question that you raised - there are two particular areas of legality or illegality which are raised by people and I will explain to you why I want to be cautious. The first is the question of the establishment of a provisional legislature at all and the extent to which many people will argue that a legislature appointed by a selection committee is difficult to see as being in compliance with Joint Declaration 49.

The second is the establishment of such a body in a quasi-constitutional way before July 1, 1997, which raises questions about JD30. Now British Ministers have made it perfectly clear that they think that the establishment of a provisional legislature before July I would call into question China's compliance with the Joint Declaration. I don't think there is any doubt whatsoever about that.