TNAG-1366-FCO40-1812-Hong-Kong-Legislative-Council-(Powers-and-Privileges)-Bill-1-1985 — Page 42

LegCo Members can ask a Public Officer appearing before the

Council to answer whether or not as a matter of fact submarines

were being built. Yet Members would have to stop short of

ordering the Officer to produce files in relation to why those

submarines were being built. The intention of the Bill is to

limit the Governor's power of negative intervention under

Clause 14 (2) to the protection of files relating to defence,

security and foreign policy only. It would be grossly unfair

and wrong to postulate that if Clause 14 (2) could be used to

usher in complete subordination of the legislature to the

Executive. Such a postulation is in our view based on the

assumption that the Chief Executive either now or in future

would necessarily be an authoritarian creature and that he or

she would crave for a subordinated legislature. We believe it

was further presumed that the future elected legislature will

be quite content to be subjected to such subordination. Both

assumptions, though understandable intellectually, would in

practice not hold true in Hong Kong especially in the light of

the fact that both China and Britain have displayed tremendous

efforts and sincerity in reaching an Agreement to preserve Hong

Kong's stability and prosperity. Of course one is entitled to

doubt, may be even forever, Britain and China's true

intentions towards H.K., yet if one is really so sceptical of

the Sino-British Joint Declaration about H.K. then no amendment

or deletion of any clause can satisfy that inherent stubborn

distrust.