TNAG-1891-FCO40-2684-Visits-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe-and-by-Douglas-Hurd--Secretaries-1989 — Page 39

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FCA SERUILE:

TRANSCRIPT A FORBIGE SBC

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HONG KONG PC- 4 JULY 1989

PORDIGE SECRETARY:

They have been taken into account as fully as possible

without my being able to see them for myself here.

QUESTION:

Sir Geoffrey, you have said that the Joint Declaration offers

the boot possible guarantee of Hong Kong's future but how can you

convince Hong Kong people to believe that the binding of the Joint

Declaration will not be revoked after 1997?

FORRIGE EXCRETARY.

Vhat I have said is that that proposition is in substance

comon ground because that is the view expressed by AXELCO) as by the

Foreign Affairs Committee. Almost everyone, not everyone, but

almost everyone who has considered it has proclaimed the Joint

Declaration ac in itself an achievement.

They have all joined with

me in saying that confidence in it has been seriously weakened by

what has happened in Peking but that we have to start from it as the

beat definition of the safeguards that people need to consolidate

and put in place more firmly.

So we ctart from that and that is why I go on to say that it

is for the leadership in Peking now to begin taking action after

action to holp restore some confidence in their commitment to it.

It will take a great deal of time and there is a huge gap of broken

confidence to be overcome.