VUNITVENTIL
8.
(c) By Order in Council.
This procedure would not require
reference to Hong Kong and would thus not involve Unofficial
Members who could dissociate themselves from it. There
is no Parliamentary procedure involved in the making of
such an order, but once it became known that such an
order had been made a Member of Parliament might ask
a question about it or try to initiate a debate.
There have been no recent precedents for any of the above courses of action. We believe that the last time the Governor acted against the Legislative Council's advice was in 1946 on a taxation issue and even then he did not have to use his official majority in the legislative Council for several unofficial members changed sides in midstream. However, the circumstances existing in the Colony in 1946 were so different from those of today that this can hardly be considered a
precedent.
9. Any attempt to impose the United Kingdom's view, particularly on such an unpopular issue as that of the defence contribution, could risk the resignation of many if not all of the Unofficial members with
with the consequent disruption of the system of Government and a risk of disorder in the Colony. The Governor could expect little or no
popular support on such an issue and even if a constitutional crisis was avoided his position in the Colony could be seriously eroded.
The Informal Arrangements
10. The Unofficial members of the Executive and Legislative Councils form a coherent (though not constitutionally recognised) body known as UMELCO, which sees itself as the "popular" representative of Hong Kong. interests. The functions of UMELCO are more akin to those of Ministers than back-benchers although the analogy cannot be carried too far. They work very closely with senior officials behind the scenes and in public, both on the preparation of legislation and in a wide field of administrative activity and policy formation. also have an Ombudsman function, having an office to deal with representations from the public.
They
CONFIDENTIAL
/11.
The degree