TNAG-2722-FCO40-3928-Hong-Kong-elections-Election-Committee-1993 — Page 42

3.E. BEIJING CEVRTEK

THỊ Kiện H165 42 {:

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the Chief Executive must be not less than 40 years of age. or

to refuse to confirm members who were bald or wore spectacles.

Would not such references to extraneous matters themselves be

in breach of the Basic Law ? They would certainly be

incompatible with my understanding of the rule of law.

ઇ. Here I may interject one other point which has emerged

from our study of your argument, which is the relevance of the

provision in Article 68 of the Basic Law that

"The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special

Administrative Region shall be constituted by election."

As you know, our position is that members of the Election

Committee should be elected fairly and openly in Hong Kong,

and that the election of 10 Legco members by the Election

Committee must itself also be fair and open. If we proceed in

the way we have proposed, I think that there will be no doubt

in the mind of the Preparatory Committee that these 10 members

have been properly elected. But I must ask the Chinese side

to reflect seriously on what might be the finding of the

Preparatory Committee if we were to agree which we shall not

do that these 10 members of the 1995 LegCo should be

produced in the way which you have proposed.

be bound to conclude that they had not been properly elected,

and thus that the 1995 Legco had not been constituted by

elections, and thus that its composition was not in conformity

with the relevant provisions of the Basic Law ? What would be

the consequences of such a finding ?

Would they not