Britain Names Last Governor of Hong Kong

After five sweet-and-sour years in Hong Kong, Gov. David Wilson will head for London in July, leaving the last great British colony to the man expected to be its last British governor, Chris Patten, who was named to the post Friday.

Hong Kong’s business and political circles had said they would prefer a politician this time after three successive diplomats. And now they will have one.

Patten, despite recently losing his parliamentary seat in Bath, a constituency in southwest England, was considered the architect of the surprise reelection victory by the Conservative Party two weeks ago.

Tory chairman Patten is known by his colleagues as a political heavyweight and a brilliant negotiator--a skill that may come in handy before the scheduled 1997 return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty.

But there was mixed reaction in the British colony to Patten’s appointment, and some critics say the post was offered to the party chairman as a reward for helping the Tories clinch their fourth straight election victory.

At a press conference Friday in London, Patten, 47, assured reporters that his main objective as governor will be to uphold the interests of the Hong Kong people.

“I hope that I will be able to demonstrate by the way I do the job in the next five years and by my commitment to the interests of the people of Hong Kong that I was the right appointment,” he said.

In a special report on one of Hong Kong’s English-language television stations Friday evening, two opposing party members in the colony’s legislature discussed Patten’s appointment.

Asked whether Patten was a good choice, legislator Yeung Sum, a member of the liberal United Democrats party, took a cautious approach.

“I think it is difficult to say at this point in time. . . . He will be a good governor if he serves the interest of the Hong Kong people.”

High on the legislature’s agenda is a call for greater democracy in the period leading up to 1997, which the conservative Co-Operative Resource Center (CRC) feels should be handled delicately to avoid offending China.

Legislator and CRC member Ronald Arculli said he feels that Patten’s strong political background will enable him to deal with issues at the local level and also achieve results with both the British and Chinese governments.

“I think one of the difficulties is, how do we achieve a greater degree of democracy without getting into a confrontation with the Chinese? I think this is where his skills as a negotiator might come in handy,” Arculli said.