TNAG-2005-FCO40-2853-Hong-Kong-political-parties-1990 — Page 97

409

HOUSE OF COMMONS

LONDON SW1A OAA

Rt. Hon. Lynda Chalker, MP,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Whitehall,

LONDON, SW1A 2AH

14th August, 1990.

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Thank you very much indeed for replying to my letter dated 9th July to Francis Maude about civil liberties in Hong Kong.

It continues to astonish me that the Government of the Colony is invoking the strict letter of the law on such matters as the need to obtain permission to use a public address system. Surely the Authorities could take up these issues with the organisers of public meetings and, on an undertaking not in infringe the law in the future, to withhold legal proceedings. To prosecute under present circumstances, and particularly when a review of rules impinging on freedom of expression is taking place, seems to me to be insensitive and, what is worse, to display a hostile attitude towards the development of democracy. The very real protests should not be brushed aside. Whilst you are committed to defend the action of the Hong Kong Government in public, I hope you will take these matters up in private and see whether you can persuade both them and the Police to adopt a much more friendly approach to the freedoms of association and expression which are essential for a democracy.

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