Mi
CONFIDENTIAL
5.
honestly, now that I have done this exercise, I am surprised at how successful we have been: and moreover some of the more obvious gaps are filled by members of Executive Council.
But if we are, as I hope, to exclude the This Isreally simple malcontent and those whose claim to inclusion
is merely that they are intoxicated with animosity or to avoid putting men in regardless of suitability solely because they are poor, then I am not sure I know what other kind of person it is proposed we should select. I suppose what is being suggested is more representation of the interests of that stereotype, the underdog. Of these the workers' is, I suppose, the obviously unrepresented class. I wish I could find a representative from them. But, first, it could only be someone from the local pro-Taiwan TUC since men from the pro-Communist FTU would neither be acceptable nor would serve. But anyone selected from the TUC (a) might never have soiled his hands in a factory; (b) would represent only a tiny fraction of the workers; (c) would not have the intellectual ability to contribute anything except the most superficial views; and (d) would be regarded with suspicion by the public at large. Moreover, there would be deep political dangers in such an appointment even if a suitable person could be found. I am afraid the Labour Advisory Board is as elevated a body as this kind of man can be allowed to aspire to.
Farmers and fisherm could provide nobody in the least bit up to the task, and the New Territories leaders from the Heung Yee Kuk would instantly take the maximum personal financial advantage from their position
as
I fear they often do from their positions in the Heung Yee Kuk.
Elected members of the Urban Council are by no means an impossibility in principle but (a) they cannot be said to be in any way representative of anybody or anything except the westernised middle class and
CONFIDENTIAL