XN000022-1996-10-03 — Page 6

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But putting that on one side, I say simply to the Honourable Member once again that the British Government believes that a provisional legislature cannot be found in the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. We think that the proposal to dismantle this Legislature and to establish a provisional legislature is, to quote the Foreign Secretary, using words far stronger than any that I've used, "reprehensible and unjustifiable", and we think that the establishment of a provisional legislature before June 30, 1997, makes a bad idea even worse and British Ministers' view is that if that was to happen it would call into question China's compliance with the Joint Declaration.

Now I may have met only a limited sort of lawyer in my time and I confess that I did once have a solicitor who was called Mr Maybe, but in my recollection lawyers are reluctant to comment on the legality of this or that action before it actually happens. I think that a lot of lawyers as well take the view that it's a good idea to encourage people not to do things which you think may be foolish or unwise rather than to assume that they've done them. I still recall that Mr Qian Qichen assured the British Foreign Secretary in The Hague in the Spring that there would only be one Legislative Council, just as there would only be one Governor, and just as there would only be one Privy Council dealing with appeals before June 30, 1997. I remember the assurance that a provisional legislature, which we think is undesirable, would not assume its functions before June 30, 1997. So I'm bound to say to the Honourable gentleman that one of my first priorities, one of the British Government's first priorities is to try to ensure that Chinese officials do as Mr Qian Qichen said they would do. Beyond that it remains our unshakeable position that the dismantling of this Legislature would be a profoundly unwise thing to do and we would continue to oppose it.

Mr Martin Lee: But if that day should ever come, would you do nothing or would you do something which you are not prepared to tell us yet?

Governor: Well, the Honourable gentleman, with or without literary flourishes always encourages me to answer hypothetical questions. What I would refer him to is what the Prime Minister said when he was in Hong Kong in March, which I think most people regarded as an extremely robust defence of the British Government's and the Hong Kong Government's and the Hong Kong community's position. Everybody would prefer, I say everybody, most people would prefer to see this Legislative Council allowed to serve out its full four year term and it's very difficult, I have to say, to imagine that when those who drafted the Joint Declaration talked about a Legislature constituted by elections they could have had in mind one chosen by 400 people who themselves had been chosen, for a variety of reasons. I don't even think that former British Ambassadors in Peking would think that was what an election

meant.