the Chief Secretary or Financial Secretary according to the subject under discussion. I invite the Council to decide for itself the Members whom I should ask to join this new body. I assume the Council will wish to ensure that they are broadly representative of its overall membership.
124. We will need to discuss the precise arrangements for the establishment of this Committee. But its main purpose will be the vital task of creating an effective working relationship between this Council and the Administration, so that the Government is fully aware of Members' concerns, and so that this Council is fully briefed on the proposals which the Government will be asking Members to support.
THE 1995 ELECTIONS
125. The reforms I have outlined will set the stage for the changes which are needed for the 1995 elections. I know that many people regard the key issue as being the number of directly-elected seats. On present plans, this will rise from 18 to 20 in 1995, and will increase at subsequent elections with the ultimate aim of achieving a Council composed entirely of directly-elected Members. For some time, it has been argued that we should seek to quicken the pace of this development, and the British Government has pledged to pursue this with the Chinese Government. Two weeks ago, therefore, during their meeting in New York, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs made the case to the Chinese Foreign Minister for an expansion in the number of Members of the 1995 Legislative Council to be chosen by direct election. The Chinese position is that such a move would be incompatible with the Basic Law and they have said that the Basic Law cannot be changed before 1997.
126. The case for more directly elected seats in 1995 will continue to be made with vigour. But this is not the only way of building up democracy in Hong Kong. I am keen that we should explore in parallel how to develop our representative institutions to the maximum extent within the terms of the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law. The Foreign Secretary told his opposite number, at the New York meeting to which I referred earlier, what I have in mind.
127. I want to emphasise that we have embarked upon these discussions, begun by the Foreign Secretary, in good faith and with a
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