TNAG-2601-FCO40-3789-Departure-of-Lord-Wilson--former-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--July-1992 — Page 61

1992-01-03 14:22 INFORMATION SERVICES DEPT

4

852 521 7725 P.04/11

SIR PETER BLAKER

The Chairman of the Anglo-HK Parliamentary Group, Sir Peter Blaker, would retire from Parliament in mid-1992 and his retirement would reduce a voice for HK in Parliament, CRC and some papers said. Reports noted that Sir Peter was familiar with HK affairs and had on several occasions reflected the territory's real situation to the British Government. He was concerned about local and SE Asian development and had always maintained good relations with China. Sing Tao Daily added that nearly 80 MPs were to retire from the Commons in the coming months, including Margaret Thatcher and Sir Geoffrey Howe. However, their stepping down was not expected to affect British policy towards

HK.

UST

Lgco member Emily Lau was pressing for another public meeting to investigate the cost overrun of the University of Science and Technology, in a bid to quiz government officials involved in the project as well as Jockey Club's representatives who failed to turn up at the last PAC hearing, R-3 reported. PAC chairman Stephen Cheong was non-committal on whether another hearing should be arranged. Peter Wong, another Legco member, said that the decision should be based on the availability of new information.

BRITISH PASSPORTS

The Senior Trade Commissioner at the British Trade Commission, Peter Heap, told Ming Pao in an interview that a large number of applicants under the British nationality scheme was expected to be informed this year of the results of their applications. Hopefully, the majority of applications under the first phase of the scheme would be completed within this year, he said.

TRAVEL INSURANCE

Government sources said that the Government was inclined to reject the proposal to increase to 100 per cent the compensation to holiday-makers under the Travel Industry Fund in the event of closure of a travel agent. The increase of the compensation rate from 70 per cent to 85 per cent was the maximum, sources said.

LORRY DRIVERS' STRIKE

Lorry drivers plying between HK and Shenzhen were contemplating staging a strike in protest against the recent steep increase in road maintenance fee levied by the mainland authorities, some papers reported. Reports noted that local container lorry operators union was striving to dissuade the drivers from taking any protest action lest transport business in the two places would be unduly affected. Tin Tin said that the drivers had refrained from action in view of the authorities' promise to readjust the fee and the presence of public security officers and anti-violence equipment on the border.