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LAST PAPER
CONFIDENTIAL
BACKGROUND NOTE
see RQ
&
22
It should be noted that Mr. Rankin's question refers
to the political (as opposed to administrative) structure
of the Government. The question of the political structure
The
of the Hong Kong Government is a matter which has been
raised by Mr. Rankin on several occasions in the past in one
form or another. He has coupled this with questions on
extending the franchise in urban council elections.
whole matter was thoroughly aired when Mr. Rankin raised it
as the subject of an Adjournment Debate in April 1967. The
last occasion on which he referred to the issue was in
October, 1967, and on that occasion the Secretary of State
replied to him along the lines which it is suggested should
now be followed in answering the present question.
2.
The fact is that there can be no change in the "political
structure" of the Hong Kong Government of the kind which
Mr. Rankin has in mind (i.e. normal constitutional progress
towards self-government) because the Chinese Peoples'
Government would react very sharply to such a development.
For this reason, the Hong Kong Government have been
exploring the possibilities of developments in the sphere of
local government in order to enable the people of Hong Kong
to participate to a greater extent in the conduct of the
affairs of the Colony. In 1965, it was decided to extend
the franchise for elections to the urban council to an
estimated 240,000 persons, but only approximately 26,000
people bothered to register as voters. Even now, after a
very recent and major exercise to persuade as many eligible
voters as possible to register, only approximately 35,000
persons have been sufficiently interested to do so. In
1966 an Official Working Party was set up to suggest possible
lines of development in the sphere of local government. The
Working Party's report was published early in 1967 and has
since been under consideration by the Hong Kong Government.
It
CONFIDENT IAL