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Catherine Chan

GOVERNOR Chris Patten made a mistake by seeing Article 104 of the Basic Law as the criteria for picking through-train candidates, two members of the working group on the Special Administrative Region Preparatory Committee said yesterday.

  Mr Patten said on his return from London on Saturday that the criteria were set out clearly in Article 104 of the Basic Law.

  This requires Legislative Council members to swear to uphold the Basic Law and pledge allegiance to the SAR when they assume office.

  Mr Patten said those criteria would be admirably sufficient for the through-train.

  The comment yesterday drew criticism from Maria Tam Wai-chu and Tam Yiu-chung, both members of the working group on the SAR Preparatory Committee.

  The power to lay down and interpret such criteria was vested in the National People's Congress (NPC) and the Preparatory Committee to be set up in 1996, they said.

  ''We must look to relevant resolutions passed by the National People's Congress, which says the Preparatory Committee is empowered to confirm candidates according to the guidelines,'' Miss Tam said.

  ''Mr Patten has only quoted an article from the Basic Law as the criteria, but made no mention of the power of the Preparatory Committee.

  ''The NPC resolution is the deciding factor, not Article 104 of the Basic Law, to deal with this matter,'' she added.

  Mr Tam, also a legislator, said he would seek clarification on the meaning of ''upholding the Basic Law and allegiance to the SAR'' when the working group had its first meeting on July 16.

  But United Democrats chairman, Martin Lee Chu-ming, also a former Basic Law Drafting Committee member, said any condition other than those stated in the mini-constitution would be an amendment.

  Executive Councillor Professor Felice Lieh-mak also agreed with Mr Patten.

  ''There is the time factor. The Preparatory Committee will not be set up until 1996, but we will have the elections in 1995,'' she said.

    Meanwhile, the British Ambassador to China, Sir Robin McLaren, has said that British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd's visit to Beijing will be helpful to the Sino-British talks, but he declined to predict if there would be any breakthroughs.

  Mr Hurd will arrive in Beijing for a two-day visit on Thursday, after the G7 summit in Japan, and will be accompanied by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Mr Michael Sze Cho-cheung.

  Sir Robin said: ''I think it is always helpful if the Foreign Secretary himself takes a hand, but he has made clear that he is not coming to negotiate.

  ''He is coming to meet Foreign Minister Qian Qichen, and to see whether, in the course of a visit, he can take matters forward. He wishes to lay down certain parameters as far as the British side is concerned,'' he said.

  He added that the seventh round of talks, which opens today, would be useful in preparing for the meeting of the two foreign ministers.

  But no immediate plans have been made for Mr Patten to meet his opposite number, Lu Ping, although the Memorandum of Understanding said the Governor should hold regular meetings with the Director of the State Council's Hongkong and Macau Affairs Office.



Dispute on criteria for through-train