about that.
52.
Mr Harris
What you are saying, in effect, is that if the present
unfortunate dispute between the British Government and the Hong Kong
Government on the one hand and China on the other continues over Governor
Patten's proposals for democracy, there is no practical possibility of this
being referred to any international body or particularly the International
Court, because China would veto it, and say they are not doing it.
(Mr Chamberlain)
I think at this stage, while negotiations are
continuing it would be wrong to speculate as to what would happen if those
negotiations were to fail. We have entered those negotiations in good
faith with the object of reaching agreement. I would stress that it is
important and of interest to both sides that those negotiations succeed,
because that would be the best guarantee of the future stability of Hong
Kong and also the need to ensure the so-called "through train", that is the
concept that existing members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong will
become members of the new Legislative Council after 1 January 1997.
I hope
you will understand that. I think it would be wrong in a public session of
this kind to speculate as to what would happen in the event of what, I
hope, is a hypothetical situation.
Chairman: We appreciate that.
Mr Sumberg
53.
What I found extraordinarily difficult when we were in China
on the question of the Basic Law was to get Chinese officials to set out in
terms where the proposals were in breach of the Basic Law. You have put
this very careful paper to us and you have set out all the proposals.
you aware of any argument from the Chinese Government in relation to those
Are
7
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