TNAG-2477-FCO40-3607-The-Hong-Kong-Association-1992 — Page 7

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We are very pleased to welcome Alastair Goodlad, who is the new Foreign Office Minister of State for Hong Kong. The new minister has already visited Hong Kong and impressed all those he met there with his political will to carry out his new duties. As an ex-Deputy Chief Whip, his experience of Westminster is second to none and as a businessman who lived in the Far East prior to joining Parliament, he is completely at home with a commercially focussed territory. He will understand how Hong Kong was founded and how its future depends on business momentum as part of China's enlightened policy of 'one country, two systems'.

I must mention two guests who would have been most welcome but who are not here tonight Lord Wilson, the present Governor, and his successor Chris Patten.

Lord Wilson is making his farewell visit to China and perhaps even now is sailing down the Yangtze river bidding goodbye to the Three Gorges. The exuberance of the Eastern merchants may have tested his academic and diplomatic skills to the maximum but I am sure all of us here would recognise his great dedication to the welfare of the people of Hong Kong. We wish him and the ever supportive Lady Wilson a very happy retirement and we look forward to his further counsel on Hong Kong affairs from the House of Lords.

Our new Governor, Chris Patten, joined us for a drink before dinner but he is chairing a commitment to the "Other Club". History tells us that this Club was founded by Winston Churchill and F E Smith when they were debarred from joining more conventional political associations. Perhaps this is a hint of the radicalism we can expect from the new administration!

We congratulate and welcome Chris Patten as the next and last Governor of Hong Kong. It is the burghers of Bath's loss and in our opinion the people of Hong Kong's great gain. Chris Patten is one of the Tory Party's most acute political philosophers. His whole political instinct is to challenge the conventional wisdoms. His task is a formidable one but with his close collegiate relationship with the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs he is better placed than anyone to look after the Hong Kong people's interests during the ultimate five years of British sovereignty of the territory. We wish him well in gaining the confidence both of the people of Hong Kong and of the successor sovereign power in China.

And just to remind him that there is no such thing even as a free drink, let alone a free supper: we look forward to having him as our main speaker at this dinner in 1995! He will be an excellent Governor, committed not only to the interests of Hong Kong but also to good relations with China.

We also welcome as our guest tonight His Excellency Mr Ma Yuzhen, the Chinese Ambassador, and his colleagues. I hope he will report well of our dinner. The Ambassador is dedicated to improving bilateral relations between China and the United Kingdom and we have all been impressed by his straight-forward and open approach to discussing even the most delicate aspects of Hong Kong's affairs. We have all been heartened in particular by the visit which Mr Deng Xiaoping paid to southern China in January this year, and the revival and renewal of economic reform in China which followed that visit. Those of us who have recently visited southern China and seen the results for ourselves know just how remarkable they are. That visit is seen in Hong Kong and round the world as a message of hope for the future, and that message has been very ably and successfully transmitted by Ambassador Ma, whom we are particularly pleased to have with us tonight.

We have as our guests tonight three former Foreign Office Ministers who had responsibility for Hong Kong: Lord Glenarthur, Mr Francis Maude, whom we congratulate on his Privy Counsellorship, and Lord Caithness, who is the newly promoted Minister of State for Transport. We thank him particularly for his sterling service over the past few years.