TNAG-2717-FCO40-3923-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 12

every pretext for doing so themselves. The Joint Declaration is the sheet anchor of the Colony. Moreover, the Chinese have said that, if we act unilaterally, they will not only dismantle the legislature but will restructure judiciary. That is a very worrying statement: how can the rule of law gain in those

circumstances?

I turn now to the general attributes of a liberal and open society which we all want to see in Hong Kong after 1997. How will they be preserved by having a subservient legislature? The 1995 elections will be held under circumstances of unexampled pressure from the mainland. Their results will be negated two years later. Already there is great pressure on Hong Kong. The society there has been polarised, forced to choose between their present and their future masters the one thing they hate and want to avoid. This is a society we shall produce, and I do not believe we can say that it is a freer and more open and more liberal society than the one that we started with.

We have greatly accelerated political intrusion from the mainland into Hong Kong, and in addition to this we have to think of the effect on administration in the Colony by the setting up of a second kitchen an alternative centre of authority on which the Chinese promise us an announcement this weekend.

We have to think of the large public works, crucially important for Hong Kong, like the airport and the container terminal, which will certainly be frozen if we go ahead the way we are doing.

We have to think of the great backlog of legislation and administration needed if we are to secure a smooth transition, as we have promised to do. How will they be facilitated by what we are doing?

In all these respects, Chairman, in terms of democracy, in terms of law, in terms of the attributes of an open and liberal society, quite apart from administration and the great economic projects, Hong Kong will be worse off at the end of the day than when we began, and worse off than if we had pursued a policy of co-operation with China and settlement on the best terms we can

get.

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