CONFIDENTIAL
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XCC(71)20
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they are a western conception of which Hong Kong residents generally have no experience and in which the majority would probably not repose much confidence, particularly if members were elected;
the powers that could be given to them would inevitably have to be very limited, confined no doubt to street cleaning, refuse collection, play- grounds and such like, and such limited authority would fail to attract capable residents as candidates for election;
there would inevitably be pressure at some later date for granting wider powers to them, and these would have to be refused;
in a compact area such as Hong Kong, there is not sufficient scope for exercising a local option in this category of functions to warrant delegation to districts;
all such work is currently done on a centralised, functional basis which is cheaper and more efficient than any such fragmentation could possibly be; each district council would require its own secre- tariat and a number of functional departments, and this would be alarmingly expensive in money and skilled manpower;
district elections would require a substantial widening of franchise to produce a significant electorate in each district, and would be likely to become a source of conflict between opposing political factions;
such a constitutional change might lead to a loss of confidence in the Colony's stability.
The consultative process in Hong Kong
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The conclusion must be therefore that the "local authority" concept is not one which would bring greater administrative efficiency to Hong Kong; nor is there thought to be any popular interest in such a system. But to abandon this line of thought is not to condemn the people of Hong Kong to an aloof and over-bureaucratic form of government; perhaps more than in any other territory in the world there is a highly developed system of ascertaining public opinion on proposed Government policies before final decisions are taken. This has been called "Government by discussion", and it operates in two ways; firstly through a network of advisory bodies, which are an important and very characteristic feature of the Hong Kong scene, and secondly by White Papers and Press releases inviting the views of inter- ested groups or individuals on particular issues. This system works well in, again, a compact community and it cannot be assumed that valid expres- sions of public opinion are likely to be more accurately ascertained through elected councillors (the number of votes cast for the present elected members and their opponents totalled less than one third of one per cent of the population).
CONFIDENTIAL