TNAG-2768-FCO40-3985-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-interviews--press-briefings-and-the--1993 — Page 76

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MR CHRIS PATTEN

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LONDON

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29 JULY 1993

So I have found it useful to have the opportunity of touching base

again with my colleagues in the government here in London, I have

got one or two other meetings on other matters. I have already,

in addition, raised with the Foreign Secretary and officials once

again the great concern felt in the Legislative Council and in

Hong Kong about the position of the ethnic non-Chinese after 1997,

it is a matter which has been raised a number of times with the UK

government in recent months and you will be aware as well of the

House of Lords vote and debate on the matter a few days ago and

the speech made on that occasion by the senior unofficial member

of EXCO, Baroness Dunn. So I have talked about that as well and I

guess we will have one or two other opportunities of raising

concerns on that subject during the rest of my visit.

QUESTION:

Did you get anywhere with the ethnic minorities issues, what do

you now take to be the British government's position on that?

MR PATTEN:

The British government's position is still as it was set out in the House of Lords debate the other day, but I hope that through forceful advocacy we will be able to encourage the government to take a different view both on that issue and on one or two related

issues, for example the position of war widows about which I think

there is very strong feeling, and rightly so, in Hong Kong.