TNAG-2601-FCO40-3789-Departure-of-Lord-Wilson--former-Governor-of-Hong-Kong--July-1992 — Page 86

1991-12-31 11:04 INFORMATION SERVICES DEPT

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REACTIONS TO ANNOUNCEMENT ON GOVERNOR

Omelco members: Emily Lau said that the gap between the announcement of a change of HK Governor and the actual naming of a successor to Sir David would create a problem in that over the next few months, Sir David would find it hard to deal with China. Martin Lee said that in view of the speculation on the change of governor, it would be good for British Government to make an announcement now. He did not think that a change of governor at this stage would have any negative effect as the new Governor should not find it difficult to familiarise with his job.

Cheung Man-kwong hoped that the new Governor would maintain HK's stability in the run-up to 1997, Tam Yiu-chung said that it would be a pity for Sir David to leave because he was very experienced in dealing with China. Frederick Fung hoped that Sir David's successor would be a China expert who was also a politician rather than a diplomat.

Others: R-3 said this morning that a Foreign Office spokesman refused to speculate on whether the next Governor would be a career diplomat or a politician. But he ruled out the likelihood of a local person being appointed to the post. The station also quoted Labour's George Foulkes as saying that it was extremely unlikely that the Labour Government would pick a local person to be the next governor, Mr Foulkes said on the station this morning that this was no longer a practical proposition because an experienced politician was needed to fill the post.

Also on R-3 this morning, political commentator Professor Peter Harris said that he was totally surprised that Mr Foulkes had said that it would be unlikely that a local person would be chosen as Governor of

HK.

A statement by Governor Sir David Wilson was carried by the radio stations this morning. In the statement, the Governor said that he was sorry to leave. But he noted that a great deal had been achieved in the last few years. He said the timing of his departure had not yet been fixed and he would be here for several months to come.

Meanwhile, Sing Tao Jih Pao reported that the chairman of the British-HK Parliamentary group, Sir Peter Blaker, said that it would be difficult to guess who would be the next HK Governor. He believed that the next Governor would discuss human rights in Peking without hurting Sino-British relations. On the financial front, the HK Economic Times played up in a headline that the financial sector did not think that the change of Governor would create a shock in the market. The Express also highlighted in a headline that people in the securities sector did not think that the news would cause major falls in share prices.

Political commentator Leung Kwan-kwok felt that Sir David had not done well in a number of issues. He hoped that the successor would resolve the difficult issues in the later half of the transition. Margaret Ny felt that Sir David had done a great job. She said that the change of governorship was a political need for Britain, not HK.