CONFIDENTIAL
6.
(b) they are if anything drawn from an even narrower field than we draw from now (an interesting result of the electoral process as it operates at present). The present elected members are, however, a great deal less sensible and a great deal more self-advertising than those we choose for Council membership - all of whom have proved themselves before selection.
In short, I would be happy to provide wider representation in Legislative Council, if I knew how to do so without at the same time making it a markedly worse Council. I really do not think we should do this just for the sake of some kind of spurious progressive image: we really cannot risk maladministration to meet objectives which are ill-defined, and whose advantages escape me. All I can do is find a variety of people known to be trustworthy and sensible, as liberally-minded as possible and with the widest range of knowledge and interest, who can contribute the maximum to making the Council work in an orderly and business-like manner. These I would hope to stimulate (somewhat against Chinese instincts, but as has already been managed quite reasonably successfully) into as much and as constructive open debate as we can. They do already, in fact, reflect public opinion quite well: much better than they are credited with. What they don't do, I must admit, is act obstructively for the sake of it, or indulge in bar-room arguments, or in other ways give the press sensational enough headlines to satisfy them. A thank goodness they don't.
So I fear I continue to think that any great departures from previous practice is not a feasible proposition and it is on this basis that I shall be making recommendations to you for the fresh appointments: and I hope they can be considered with what I have written in view. If you have any other specific ideas about how to widen representation, however, in addition to those in your telegram No. 369 I should of course be glad to hear them.
Your car Darich,