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Public Reaction:
The reassurances given by the Governor during his TV interview were welcomed by members of the community. The Executive Director of the General Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Jimmy McGregor, described the interview as "very helpful". It was a very balanced talk. Sir Edward obviously had to deal with the difficult question of 1997 and was subjected to quite intensive questioning by Jim Biddulph. He was as open as he could be. Mr. McGregor was impressed by Sir Edward's conviction that the lease agreement would be acceptable to the people of HK. Mr. Sze Chu-sian of the HK Belongers said the Governor handled the interview "wonderfully". Sir Edward couldn't be exactly reassuring as he was not allowed to disclose what was going on in the talks. But he knew what he was talking about. That was the value of having a trained diplomat to handle the HK situation.
The Oriental Daily News quoted the editor of Pai Shing Semi-Monthly, Mr. Hu Jiajiang, as saying that people should not ask the Governor to reveal too much about the 1997 talks. On the question of public opinion, he said it was a very complicated issue because Beijing might feel cross about public opinion here; as a result, the Government might be criticised for playing the public opinion card. Holding a different viewpoint, the Deputy chairman of Meeting Point, Mr. Yeung Sum, said that if possible the Government should reveal the progress of the talks. The Government could play an active role in canvassing public opinion by holding public meetings and inviting academics, unionists and community and student representatives to attend, he insisted. The editor of another magazine, The Seventies, Mr. Lee Yee, said in order to restore foreign investors' confidence in HK, Britain and China should jointly appoint an international consultancy firm to carry out an opinion poll to find out the real wishes of local residents. A CU lecturer, Mr. Andrew Wong, said at this stage people should be patient and not talk too much about the 1997 question.
Sing Tao Wan Pao quoted a HKU lecturer, Dr. Chan Yiu-nan, as saying that the Governor's remarks did not represent any breakthrough. Miss Cecilia Fung of the General Chamber of Commerce said the Governor was too general in his remarks on the factors contributing to the slump of the HK dollar. If the Governor had stated clearly that the slide of the HK dollar was due to economic factors rather than political ones that would have been a far more effective way of stabilising the local unit instead of raising prime rate by two percentage points.
as rational.
Newly elected CPPCC member, Mr. Mao Yun-sun, described Sir Edward's statement
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