SECRET
香港總督府
НКВ
GOVERNMENT HOUSE HONG KONG
aılı
1 March 1988
и
16
Sir,
1.
The Development of Representative Government
in Hong Kong : The Road Travelled
On 10 February 1988 the Hong Kong Government published a White Paper entitled "The Development of Representative Government: The Way Forward". This was the third White Paper on the subject in seven years. The policies announced in this series of White Papers have brought Hong Kong a long way in a short time. In this despatch I shall look at the historical and more recent background to these developments.
2.
In the mid-1970's, a Hong Kong historian wrote that if the first British Governor, Sir Henry Pottinger, were to have returned, practically the only things he would have recognised would have been the Peak and the system of government. Just over a decade later things look rather different. Sir Henry would still recognise the Peak. But in place of the traditional system of colonial government, which had changed little in over 130 years, Hong Kong now has a system of representative government with a significant element of elected membership at each level - district, regional and central. The February White Paper announced the decision that, for the first time, the Legislative Council will include directly elected (as well as indirectly elected) members as from 1991. It also announced changes to the membership of the Urban Council which will give that body an elected majority for the first time in 1989, plus a number of other decisions all of which are important in Hong Kong but none of which has received the attention devoted to the issue of direct elections.
The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Howe QC MP Secretary of State for Foreign
and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign & Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
SECRET
/These reforms