CONFIDENTIAL
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Mh Wilford
Sir Leslie Monson
Appointments to the Hong Kong Legislative Council
This submission is a follow-up to my submission of 24 June concerning appointments to the Hong Kong Executive Council.
2. The appointments of all members (other than ex officio members) of the Hong Kong Legislative Council will expire on 30 June and in
his letter dated 12 June the Governor has sent us his views and
recommendations on the future membership of the Council.
The
3. A list setting out the present membership is attached.
list also gives the date of first appointment of each member.
4. The fact that the appointments of all thirteen unofficial
members expire on 30 June, 1970, is the contrived result of an
agreement reached with the Governor last year at a time when
Sir David Trench's own term of office as Governor was due to expire
in April, 1970. The intention then was to give his successor a free hand in making his own selections for appointment to the
Council shortly after his assumption of office. Since then Sir David's term of office has been twice further extended (first
by six months until October, 1970, and then by a further year until October, 1971). He will therefore remain as Governor for the next
fifteen and a half months.
5. Official Members: It has already been agreed with the Governor
that the existing eight nominated official members should be reappointed with effect from 1 July for a further period of one year (or for so long as they hold their present offices). The Governor now proposes that, if we accept his recommendation that Mr. Rowe, Director of Social Welfare, should be appointed to the Executive Council (this was agreed last week), Mr. Rowe should be replaced on
the Legislative Council in September, 1970, by Mr. Tsui, at present Deputy Secretary for Home Affairs, who is to become Head of the Resettlement Department at that time. This recommendation is worth supporting since, apart from the fact that Mr. Tsui has already served on both Councils in the past whilst acting as Secretary for Home Affairs, it would mean that the official members
would continue to include a Chinese member. The only existing Chinese official member of the Legislative Council, Dr. Teng, Director of Medical Services, is due to retire in July, 1970.
CONFIDENTIAL
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