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CHINA owes the public an explanation if it dismantles Hong Kong's three-tier political structure in 1997, Governor Chris Patten said yesterday on his return from a five-week holiday in London and France.

  He said he saw no reason why the district boards, the two municipal councils and the Legislative Council should be dissolved upon the change of sovereignty.

  His remarks come as the Chinese National People's Congress prepares to pass a resolution that says the terms of office of members in the three government bodies will end on July 1, 1997.

  Speaking at Kai Tak airport, Mr Patten said: ''If in 1997 those arrangements are dismantled, those who take responsibility for that will have to explain themselves to six million people here in Hong Kong.''   Mr Patten described the upcoming meeting between British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd and his Chinese counterpart Qian Qichen in New York next month as particularly important.

  ''I think the people of Hong Kong have seen our negotiators kicking the ball around on the pitch, and they want to see a few goals,'' he said.

  Mr Patten said the Chinese side would be to blame if the meeting failed to produce results.

  ''It won't fail because of any lack of commitment on Mr Douglas Hurd's part. If others are saying it will fail because they want it to fail, that is a pretty curious message for them to offer the people of Hong Kong, and I can't believe they would wish to do that.''   Mr Hurd will visit Hong Kong on September 15 and 16 before meeting Mr Qian in New York during a United Nations general assembly later in the month.

  Meanwhile in Beijing, a senior mainland official stepped up the attack on Britain over Chek Lap Kok airport financing and the granting of development rights for Container Terminal 9 (CT9).

  Chen Ziying said the Government should not grant any franchise to consortiums which did not have experience in operating container businesses - apparently referring to the Tsing Yi Consortium led by the Jardine Matheson Group.

  ''If the CT9 project is to be granted through private treaty, the decision should be practical, fair, reasonable and based on commercial consideration. [We] should not consider the non-economic factors that cannot be talked about publicly,'' he said.

  ''Giving some contracts to those consortiums which do not have the experience in operating container terminals will be harmful to the economy and the territory's future development,'' Mr Chen said in Beijing.

  Under the CT9 plan, Hong Kong International Terminal and Modern Terminal Ltd will each operate one berth while the Tsing Yi Consortium will operate two.



Beijing 'owes explanation'