}
The process does
12
not end there. The debate in
Council will be informed, lively, and constructive. and It
will be attended by the Senior officials concerned who will
answer Members' questions, which will often be very
searching indeed.
It should not be assumed that the Council will
follow blindly down the path set by the Administration.
From time to time a proposal will be rejected out of hand,
more often it is sent back for further consideration
refinement or the Council will advise that it should be
necessary.
or
approved subject to qualifications. Nor should it be
assumed that the Council will always speak with one voice.
On occasion opinion will be
be divided and a vote will be
Given that the important decisions are
invariably a matter of distinguishing between different
shades of grey, rather than between black and white, there
is nothing particularly surprising about this. But once a
decision is taken, Members of the Council will be expected
to support it, according to the doctrine of collective
responsibility.
In coming to its conclusion the Council is acutely
aware not so much of the theroretical extent of the power
conferred on the Governor in Council by the Letters Patent
and the Royal Instruction, but of the practical limitation
on that power imposed by convention and the realities of
modern Hong Kong. Thus there can be no question of taking
decisions which cannot be explained to the people of Hong