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3.
in Hong Kong. With some reluctance I conclude that this is right, at any rate at present. Of course if circumstances arose in the future in which there were a strong local demand for such reform there would be an entirely different situation. But nothing of the sort is foreseeable. Indeed I cannot discern any significant local interest in real democratic reform.
7.
What therefore can we do to render this Government more local and less alien if we cannot do this by the conventional method of creating an elected government along Western lines? I suggest that we should start by considering in what ways Hong Kong people themselves want change. I believe the main lines to be:
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a)
that Hong Kong's affairs should be settled in accordance with Hong Kong's own interests and not those of the United Kingdom.
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Most
of the time this implied criticism is totally unfair, and in any case I maintain that the two interests are by definition indivisible; never the less this attitude is very widely felt and expressed and frequently, whether on death sentences, Hong Kong's reserves, or trade matters boils up to the surface.
b) that the positions of power should be more
in the hands of local people. So far as the civil service is concerned this is a valid criticism, and certainly I feel the lack of Chinese in the top echelon. It will be rectified in the course of the next 7 or 8 years as the Chinese who now pre- dominate in the middle and lower ranks of the administrative service qualify for the top jobs. To go some way to meeting this point I try to give the chairmanship of advisory bodies to Unofficials wherever possible. I should add that in practice very great power lies in the hands of Unofficials, whether on Executive or Legislative Council or on advisory bodies,
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