XN000022-1997-01-23 — Page 18

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Dr Yeung Sum (in Chinese): My question is very simple. When the NPC says that the Societies Ordinance and the Public Order Ordinance violate the Basic Law, if that happens, will you, before 1 July 1997 when Hong Kong is still under your rule, turn this matter over to the courts for handling, if that happens before 1 July 1997?

Governor: I am not sure that an action by the NPC in Peking would be justiciable in the Hong Kong courts before 30 June. I don't think it would have any standing in the Hong Kong courts before 30 June. I mean I will take legal advice on that. The honourable gentleman and I both suffer from the disadvantage, or have the advantage, of not being lawyers, but I think that would be my understanding of the situation.

What I repeat though, is perfectly clear, is even if the NPC can strike-down Hong Kong laws, the consequence of striking-down those laws is not the reinstatement of the laws which were there before. That requires new legislation. Unless, that is, the NPC is proposing to take on a legislative role in Hong Kong in relation to matters which are specifically specifically - part of Hong Kong's autonomy under the Basic Law and under the Joint Declaration.

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Dr Yeung Sum: Are you prepared to take some legal advice?

Governor: Yes. Absolutely.

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Miss Christine Loh: I would like to go back to the problem of statelessness. There are actually two groups here. One group is the ethnic minorities which the Governor has addressed. But to follow on from that I am happy to hear, Governor, that you say you will press as hard as you can in the final months is there something that this Council can do? If there is something that in your opinion will be helpful to the cause, I think we would like to know.

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Secondly, just now you talked about the possibility of legislation only being passed perhaps even after 30 June 1997. If that is the case, in order to identify the deserving cases amongst the ethnic minorities that will qualify for full British citizenship, can we be assured of having the full co-operation of the Hong Kong Immigration Department? I believe that is where the files rest for those people right now in Hong Kong.

Governor, the other group that could be a problem are the Vietnamese migrants; a small group of people where Vietnam has said that these people are not their nationals. They are right now in Hong Kong. It seems that if that continues to be the situation, even if they volunteer to go back to Vietnam, Vietnam won't take them, they will have nowhere to go and they could very well, also, effectively become stateless. Hong Kong should be doing the decent thing; if they have nowhere to go, perhaps that very small group of people will have to stay until some other international solution is found. Has Britain been looking into this issue and whether there is any update on what might be a possible course of action?