MEMBERS of the British House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee were told yesterday that Hong Kong people wanted to see an agreement on the 1994/95 electoral arrangements. Senior Executive Councillor Lady Dunn, pro-China legislator Tam Yiu-chung and liberal lawmaker Frederick Fung Kin-kee told the visiting parliamentarians that an agreement was preferred. In Beijing, a department head of the Chinese State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Chen Zuo'er, said last night that if the two sides could not reach an agreement on the constitutional talks it would inevitably affect the new airport and Container Terminal Nine projects. The British delegation was in the territory to solicit the views of Hong Kong people and meet politicians and government officials. Representatives of the Hong Kong Bar Association and the Law Society of Hong Kong had informal discussions with the British MPs at a dinner. Led by David Howell, the MPs also met China's top man in Hong Kong, Zhou Nan. Mr Zhou, director of the Hong Kong branch of Xinhua (the New China News Agency) had ''a friendly and frank exchange of views on Sino-British relations and on the Hong Kong issue'', according to a Xinhua release. Speaking after the 45-minute meeting with Mr Zhou, Mr Howell said the talks had been friendly and they were able to exchange ideas on a number of issues to strengthen relations between China and Britain. Pro-China lawmaker Mr Tam told the delegation that Governor Chris Patten was to blame for causing the Sino-British row because he should have let the Joint Liaison Group discuss the 1994/95 electoral arrangements instead of unilaterally putting forward his reform package. Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood legislator Mr Fung said he expressed the need for an agreement between the two governments at his meeting with the MPs. ''I told them that I would expect a lot of quarrels between the two governments if they could not reach an agreement,'' he said. Mr Fung said he made it clear to the MPs that his group believed that Hong Kong courts should set the criteria by which legislators could straddle 1997. Lady Dunn also told the delegation that most people in Hong Kong wanted to see an agreement on constitutional reforms.
