TNAG-2962-FCO40-4241-Future-of-Hong-Kong-British-Consulate-General-building-incl-1993 — Page 95

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CABINET MEETING

The Governor's press conference yesterday before leaving for London to attend a crucial cabinet committee meeting was well covered, with the papers highlighting his remark on the chrough train and his criticism of comments by PWC members. A few papers filed reports from London quoting British news reports on the cabinet meeting. Some noted his itinerary in the UK. The HK Economic Journal said he would meet senior Tory members, the leaders of the opposition parties, and former CS Sir Philip Haddon-Cave, Governor: The papers quoted Mr Patten as saying that the cabinet meeting would review the progress and assess the prospects of success of the calks, and would consider the British side'e strategy for the time that remained. He asked people not to expect the meeting to make any important announcement, such as how much time was left for the talks and what action would the British side taka should the talks mada no progress. On the through train, he reiterated Sir Robin McLaren's earlier remarks that the criteria must be reasonable, objective, prospective and not retrospective, while calling for flexibility from the Chinese side, the papera noted. He added that the two sides lød not talked about whether the "subversion" criterion should count from 1995. On come MWC members' remarks about the post-1997 legislature should there be no agreement, Mr Patten decribed cham as "curious" and "difficult to accommodate with the JD or the BL". Sing Pao in a sub-headline noted that the Governor had reiterated that the talks could not go on forever, while Sing Tao Daily said he stressed that his roform package waa iu Ilmu with the BL.

Sources: A number of papers reported that in an interview with the Times of London, Mr Patten said it was difficult to imagine China's first action after resuming sovereignty would be to disband the three-tier councils and dr ve people it did not like off the through train. The Governor said the Government had a clear bottomline and that it would not give up its principles on the political issue. Wen Wei Po quoted a Times report as saying that the PM might call a halt to the talks after hearing Mr Patten's views.

The HK Economic Journal said the cabinet would delegate the power to call an and to the talks to Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd and Mr Patten. Therefore, the meeting would not discuss the concrete time limit for the talks. The cabinet meeting would also discuss the British side's bottomline in the final stage of the talks concerning the Election Committee and functional constituencies, set clearer guidelines for the through train criteria and consider which version of the political reform package should be tabled in Legco should the talks fall. The paper said the meeting would be the last one held before the talks concluded. Ming Pao reported that the cabinet had decided at its daily meeting on Wednesday to empowerT the committee on HK policy chaired by John Major to decide on November 10 all matters concerning HK's political development.

POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS

A number of papers quoted Exco member Edward Chan as saying that if an agreement was reached, the Government would only have to table a Bill containing the consensus in Legco. If an agreement could not be reached, the British side would have to carefully consider tabling a Bill that would be acceptable by HK people and legislators. He said the FAC hearing would not affect the talks.

In an inside-page lead, the HK Economic Times noted that most legislators supported the tabling of the original reform package should the talks fail. They included the UDHK, Meeting Point, and independent members Eric Ld and Vincent Cheng. The Liberal Party, however, felt that it would only be logical for the Government to table the revised package proposed by the British side in the talks. The paper noted that no matter which package was tabled, it would be heavily amended by members.

On the FAC hearing which concluded that the Patten package did not violate the JD and the BL, the HK Commercial Daily reported that NPC delegate Cheng Yiu-tong and CPPCC delegate Xu Simin questioned the British side's cincority towards-reaching an agreement as it was still attempting to defend the package.