TNAG-2392-FCO40-3478-Appointment-of-Chris-Patten-as-new-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--Ap-1992 — Page 29

24-APR-1992 16:59

JAMES LEE

P.08

TRANSCRIPT B MR. CHRIS PATTEN

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PC

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LONDON 24 APRIL 1992

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7

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it may not have seemed benign at the time, has given me the

opportunity of taking on this formidable responsibility with my

wife and family and I am looking forward to working as hard in

Hong Kong as I did when I was a Member of Parliament.

PETER SNOW (BBC):

Are you going to learn Chinese?

MR.

PATTEN: 1

I have sufficient comprehension of my capacities to know which

mountains not to try to climb, My struggles with French and

Spanish have encouraged me to believe that I am not the most

notable linguist but I assume that Alice, after five years, will

be more accomplished linguistically than her father.

QUESTION:

You are now going to hold the last imperial post, whether you call

it "pro-consular" or "vice-regal". What model of the past

century will you be looking to, Curzon, Mountbatten, which one?

MR. PATTEN:

Unlike Curzon, I shan't do the ???? on myself.