TNAG-1724-FCO40-2437-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 109

MP.

Just change one word:

Thus caution doth make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

(I mean the resolution contain in the 1984 Green Paper)

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

(Were they about China?)

And enterprises of great pith and moment

(direct elections in 1988μ)

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

Is it, Sir, then a case of a lame duck Administration or a

prudent Administration, or a cautious Administration?

[N

Now I come to Romeo and Juliet:

'What's in a name? that which we call a rose

By any other name would smell as sweet:

And now the paraphrase:

What's in a name? that which we call our Government

By any other name would seem as lame:

As to this new found caution or prudence, may I

quote another line: 'O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou

Romeo?'

Or Prudence, Prudence, wherefore art thou

Prudence during the hasty passage of the Public Order

(Amendment) Ordinance in March 1987.