Mr Hurd was taken aback, but made a spirited defence of the Governor, ruling out his removal if the row with China worsened.

And he accused Sir Percy of not being ''up to speed'' with developments in the territory adding that his ''time has passed''.

In his letter, Sir Percy said many of the references made about him by the Governor on January 20 were inaccurate.

Sir Percy said Britain had told the Chinese Government of the substance of Mr Patten's 1992 democracy speech beforehand, but had refused China's request for consultation on it.

The Governor told the committee that Sir Percy's version was untrue, ''whether [as] the result of misunderstanding or [as] the result of other motivations''.

Mr Patten said it was up to Sir Percy to explain.

In his testimony, Mr Patten had said: ''It is true that a couple of days before I made the speech a senior Chinese official said that I must not set out our proposals before they have been agreed with the Chinese side.

''In other words, China should have a veto . . .

''That is not my idea of what consultation means. Consultation means discussion, it means looking for middle ground, it means looking for consensus while not abandoning your principles,'' Mr Patten said.

But Sir Percy insisted he had been accurate and evidence for this was in his book, Experiences of China.

His letter added: ''The relevant part of the text was carefully checked with the Foreign Office as part of the process of official clearance.'' Sir Percy also took issue with the Governor over consultations held in May 1992 soon after his appointment.

He said he was sorry Mr Patten had chosen to make public his version of a private and confidential discussion, adding ''again he had got it completely wrong''.

Sir Percy insisted he had emphasised the dangers of disregarding Chinese objections to any increase in the number of directly elected seats in the Legislative Council in 1995.

''There was no inkling at that time of the plan to circumvent existing agreements and substantially widen the electorate by bringing in a new kind of functional constituency.

''The Governor's account may leave the impression that he outlined some of his ideas to me. That was not the case. I learnt nothing about them until his speech in October,'' Sir Percy said.

''I retired from government service on June 5. My comments to him in May were predictable and plain. But, clearly, he was not listening.'' Mr Hurd had had no earlier chance to read the letter and commented only after glancing over it.

The Foreign Secretary said Sir Percy was ''a highly distinguished public servant and was a great help to me and my predecessor on Hong Kong matters''.

''I have the impression his time has passed. The Hong Kong of today is not one with which Sir Percy feels at home.'' The territory was now both political and commercial.

''I can't think Sir Percy is entirely up to speed on that. He is entitled to state his views as often as he wishes but the Governor and the rest of us are entitled to comment on them.'' Mr Hurd was asked by Labour MP Robert Wareing if he would consider removing Mr Patten if his presence was to the detriment of Hong Kong.

The Foreign Secretary insisted ''no''.

''You are falling into a trap. You are personalising these issues. The Governor continues. He has our full confidence. Changing people doesn't solve anything.

''I can't imagine any worse prelude to discussion with the Chinese than a change of governor. It would be disastrous.'' Mr Hurd said there was no evidence the Chinese Government had taken a decision not to reach agreement on democracy and he said he found it hard to understand what might be behind its general reluctance in seeing increased democracy in the territory.

He was against doing a deal ''in circumstances which appear shabby and inadequate''.

Mr Hurd expressed concern over the lack of progress in the Joint Liaison Group especially on the localisation of laws.

''What possible advantage is there to China to inherit a legal mess? It's clearly in their interest to make progress on these fronts.'' Mr Hurd warned British business to be cautious about statements from China threatening trade discrimination.

The Chinese Ambassador in London, Ma Yuzhen, has been speaking to senior British figures on the issue. Mr Hurd said: ''I am not saying the ambassador is exceeding his functions, but I think that British businessmen would be well advised not to take his analysis at face value.'' UK officials have spoken to the Chinese Embassy on the subject and Mr Hurd has raised it at the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The union would take any discrimination very seriously.