XN000022-1997-03-18 — Page 2

Transcript of Governor's media session

Following is the transcript of the media session given by the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, after the ExCo meeting at CGO this (Tuesday) morning:

Governor: Good morning. Perhaps I could just say a couple of things. We had a discussion this morning with the Commissioner of Police about our latest crime statistics and we were able to congratulate the Commissioner once again on really good figures for February. Comparing February this year with February last, overall crime has fallen by over 20% and violent crime by nearly 6%.

Now I realise that no crime is an acceptable level but nevertheless, what we can point to in Hong Kong is not just a statistical blip as far as the crime levels are concerned but a steady reduction in crime. Which means, for example, that the crime figures last year were not just lower than they were in the early 90's but were actually lower than they were 15 years ago. I think that is a great tribute to the whole community. I think it is a tribute to the Fight Crime committees. Above all it is a tribute to the police. And we, of course, in Hong Kong have a much higher police to population ratio than most similar communities it is about 436 police officers for every 100,000 of population. I think that means that people see the police about in the community and that in itself is a deterrent to serious crime. So I repeat, the February figures were extremely good and I hope that we will continue to see falling crime in this community as a mark of the community's social and political stability.

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One other thing that I would like to say but it should not be necessary to clarify this point there was a statement put out by the Foreign Office's News Department yesterday which made the point. There has been some controversy in the last few days about whether or not Britain could or should monitor the implementation of the Joint Declaration after 30 June this year. I just want to make the position absolutely plain because we have had one or two statements which I think have generated heat rather than shed light.

The position is perfectly simple. The Joint Declaration is an international treaty. It is a binding treaty which has been lodged at the United Nations. Under that treaty China makes a number of solemn commitments to the United Kingdom about how Hong Kong is going to be governed and how Hong Kong is going to develop over the 50 years after 1997. So it is natural that Britain should and will wish to monitor how those commitments are kept and how the Joint Declaration is implemented.