XN000022-1996-10-03 — Page 19

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Governor: I very much agree with you that we need to develop our social services, we need to develop our caring network in order to give more assistance to not only battered wives but abused children, and you will find in the very, very long Progress Report that we produced yesterday, and in our statement on policy commitments, both of which are miles longer than my speech, how we are hoping that we can help in those areas.

I think we should recognise that in Hong Kong we do have some of the social problems that other communities suffer from. We do suffer from some of the problems of marital breakdown. I guess that it is one of the prices we have paid for development. We need to help people both through assisting the non-governmental organisations which work with battered wives and by providing the necessary network of social care, of welfare, not just for battered wives but for children who are being abused, and we say a good deal about that quite specifically in our policy commitments which I am just looking at as I talk to you.

Question (in Chinese): Yes. What I wish to say is this: it is not just non-government agencies, I feel that within government, now people like me, I think it is the government's responsibility to do some publicity. Recently we have people who have been left in dire circumstances for a long time and yet they do fail to get relevant information, so shouldn't the Government take on some responsibility. At 10 o'clock there will be a press conference on this in Kwan Fuk in Lai King.

Governor: Can I first of all say that you're not the only person who presses me on this issue. My wife, when she was working professionally in the UK was a lawyer and she worked in particular on marital issues. She worked on issues like battered wives and child abuse and child custody, so she goes on at me a good deal on the subject and I am sure that she will be as interested as I am in what happens at your press conference. You mentioned it wasn't just a question of wives but of children as well and we are, of course, making additional social workers available for the Child Protective Services Unit, which is a sort of indication of how concerned we are about the issue.

Question: Mr Patten, it will ease our anxiety about 1997 a great deal if the present legislature is allowed to serve. Can you do anything at this late stage?

Governor: I very much hope that Chinese officials will take account of what people like you say. I very much agree with you. There are very few things which could give people more confidence about the future than a commitment to allow the present freely elected legislature to go through to the end of its four year term. I think the trouble about the threats or the undertaking to dismantle it is that it does raise anxieties about what might happen in other sectors. I don't want to go over old arguments but there is no question at all that people who are worried about the rule of law are understandably worried if they think that the body which makes the laws is going to be unsound or questionable. So I hope that at least to begin with it will be made clear that there will be no provisional legislature before June 30 1997 - none is required. And I hope that on the bigger issue of a provisional legislature after 1997, Chinese officials will think again. It would be greatly in their interest to do so.