- 3.
Sharing Prof Wu's view, another Chinese official, Lee Wai-ting of the NCNA HK Branch, said on (10.6) that Prof Chen's proposal would not be acceptable to China.
Governor
In an interview with the Economic Journal (23.6), the Governor was quoted as saying that he would stand by the JLG agreement on the CFA. Conceding that it was impossible to re-negotiate a new agreement, Mr Patten said the idea of shelving the whole issue in the hope that in the unknown distant future China would change its mind would not work. Therefore, he hoped to move forward and implement the agreement, which he said had been reached on goodwill.
Exco and Legco Members Groups and Others
Senior Exco Member Baroness Dunn was quoted by the papers as saying, after an Exco meeting (8.6), that HK people should now consider whether they wanted the CFA to be in place before 1997 to give it time to establish its credibility and integrity or they wanted to abandon it simply because the agreement was not absolutely ideal. The Economic Journal quoted Exco sources as saying that Baroness Dunn, who had previously expressed reservations about the JLG arrangement, now believed that having the CFA early was more important.
Rosanna Wong agreed that it was very important to have the CFA set up as soon as possible in order to have its authority established. She said the British side had the responsibility to implement the Sino-British agreement. As for the mixed views expressed, she hoped all suggestions would not contravene the principle behind the agreement.
The papers reported (10.6) that another Exco Member, Prof Edward Chen, said it was unrealistic to suggest that the agreement on the CFA be re-negotiated. He said he remained opposed to having just one overseas judge. He suggested that the Government could deal with the controversial question of the number of overseas judges by introducing subsidiary legislation. This would stipulate that under extraordinary circumstances the number of overseas judges could vary. Legco Constitutional Development Panel convenor Andrew Wong, however, cast doubt on the proposal. Noting that the two countries had already reached an agreement on the issue, he said it was unlikely that Legco could pass any legislation that contravened the agreement.
A number of Legco members also commented on the issue. Allen Lee of the Liberal Party Preparatory Committee again called on the two countries to discuss the issue for an early settlement. He stressed the importance of setting up the CFA early. The Chief Justice should be given the responsibility to flexibly decide whether to invite overseas judges and how many. His party colleague, Miriam Lau, said the Liberal Party manifesto called for flexibility in the composition of the CFA and its establishement before 1997. Meeting Point chairman Anthony Cheung said his group's position was that the CFA should enjoy the discretion to decide the ratio
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