TNAG-1724-FCO40-2437-Minutes-and-Hansards-of-the-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1988 — Page 215

6.

supplementary to Question No.8

Lagca meeting on 3 February 1988

Mr. MARTIN LEE: Sir, may I respectfully seek a ruling from

you because I do not, with respect, think that the Chief

Secretary has answered my question. The question was based

on a disclosure of fact made to Parliament as recently as

20 January this year

which took the hon. Member of

Parliament then on his feet, Sir Peter Blaker, as much by

public surprise as it took me, listening to it up in the gallery.

on 18

February

What the Chief Secretary said was simply to refer to his own

speech made in this Council

last year

when there was no such disclosure of fact. So may I

respectfully ask you to direct him to answer my question?

HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT: Mr. LEE, it is unwise for the

chair to make a ruling about whether answers are adequate or

not. It is always open to a Member of this Council to ask

further questions. It must be for those who answer to judge

the adequacy or otherwise of their answers. If you wish

to ask a further supplementary question, you may of course

do so.

сар.

Mr. MARTIN LEE: Sir, such a non-answer makes the asking of

supplementary questions very difficult but I will try. Does the Administration appreciate that the relevant question

copied by AGB McNair HK Ltd. from the Green Paper, consisted of 251 words in English and 368 characters in Chinese, and

yet still failed to ask the simple question as to whether the

people polled would like to see direct elections introduced in 1988?