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within one nation has no precedent.
It offers an
administrative and imaginative response to the special
historical circumstances of Hong Kong. The
concept is an example of how apparently intractable
problems can and should be resolved.
The Agreement is a basis on which the people of
Hong Kong will build. They will bring to the task the
energy, persistence and determination for which they are
rightly famous throughout the world, and I am confident
that they will make Hong Kong an even more flourishing
place than it is today.
Britain and China share a continuing responsibility
to maintain the conditions within which the people of Hong
Kong can realize this goal. We have laid the foundation
in this solemn international agreement. We have created
in the Sino-British Joint Liaison Group a forum for
cooperation over its implementation.
that
We have demonstrated
the strength of our commitment to it today by the signature
you, Mr. Premier, and I, have set upon it, and I
am heartened by the assurance which your Government has
repeatedly given that the arrangements for Hong Kong contained
in the Agreement are not measures of expediency; they are
long-term policies which will be incorporated in the basic
law for Hong Kong and preserved intact for 50 years from 1997.
For my part, I pledge that the British Government
will do all in its power to make the Agreement a success.
It will be our pride and our pleasure to administer Hong
Kong up to the 30th of June 1997 in accordance with the
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