TNAG-2702-FCO40-3908-Memoirs-of-Sir-Percy-Cradock--diplomat-and-sinologist-1993 — Page 181

rejecting the agreement on the Court of Final Appeal, so

recently and painfully extracted in the context of the

Prime Minister's visit to Peking. The issue turned on the

number of overseas judges eligible to serve on the court,

which would be Hong Kong's substitute for the Judicial

Committee of the Privy Council. Some outside element would

be important in ensuring that the territory remained within

the Common Law tradition. The wording in the Joint

Declaration was ambiguous, capable of being read as meaning

or "several". The Chinese naturally opted for the

narrower interpretation. We had accepted that was the best

we could get; and we were anxious to get the court set up and

operating well in advance of 1997. But the Hong Kong

Legislative Council and the Hong Kong legal profession,

insisted on the wider meaning, even though that would mean

no court at all. Members of Exco joined in and attacked a

deal they had endorsed when

consulted

earlier. The

legislation had to be withdrawn and the court could not be

set up. Peking, predictably, found in all this evidence of a

British conspiracy with Hong Kong to undermine the

understanding of September and reopen the issue. It seemed

a foolish refusal to come to terms with realities;

also, a bad augury for the reception of any future Sino-

British agreements on the territory; and for future

relations between the Special Administrative Region and

Peking.

to me

The announcement of Mr. Patten as Governor of Hong

Kong in April also aroused all Peking's latent suspicions,

even before he had time to read himself into his new post and

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