438
DEAR SIR,
(16)
Enclosure 4.
(Honourable E. R. Belilios to the Governor.)
HongKong, 29th May, 1894.
I am in receipt of your letter of the 21st instant informing me that a petition to the House of Commons has been forwarded to you by Mr. WHITEHEAD with the request that you will send it to the Secretary of State, and asking me, as an old resident and a member of the Legislative Council, to give my opinion in regard to that petition. As you opine I am fully aware of the prayer of that petition, and it is no doubt within your knowledge that I declined to append my signature to it.
I avail myself with much pleasure of the opportunity now afforded me to set forth the reasons that prompted me to adopt a course in opposition to that taken by the majority of my unofficial colleagues in the Legislative Council.
I am of opinion that a somewhat larger share in, and control over, the adminis- tration of purely local affairs should be conceded to the British taxpayers of this Colony; but I think the petition goes too far. It contemplates the utter swamp- ing of the official element in the Legislative Council and the introduction of Un- official Members into the Executive Council. I am not prepared to advocate such a sweeping change. I consider that British Imperial interests must always be paramount here because this island is only a commercial depôt and coaling station a mere fortified rock-on which there can be no permanent local interests of any magnitude. I am not aware of a single British resident who regards this island as his home; we are all birds of passage, giving place, every few years, to another set of, shall I say, commercial swallows. There is no planting interest; no estates handed down from father to son, as is the case in Mauritius, Cyprus, Malta, &c. where the settlement of the soil preceded the British Government, not as happened in this Colony, where the settlers followed the establishment of the administration and then consisted of trading hongs. It may be objected that the Officials are also only temporary residents, but they at any rate carry on a settled policy and are responsible to a higher authority, while the successors to the Unofficial Members may hold widely different views to those animating my colleagues and may represent a dwindled British interest.
In the event of a large increase in the number of Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council being conceded, I am very doubtful whether, even now, suitable men with the needed leisure could be found whose position would admit of their acceptance of the duties and responsibilities involved. Most of the remain- ing representative residents have their time so fully occupied that they would be compelled to decline the honour. But supposing that good legislators could now be found, I am by no means satisfied that there would always be fitting successors to them or that the interests we leave behind us here would be safe in their hands. that is, of course, supposing the unofficial element to be in the majority. Personally I confess I would prefer to trust in the future to officials of whose probity I need feel no doubt and of whose policy no speculation need be entertained to a body of elected representatives who might in years to come be returned to office largely by Chinese or mixed votes, pledged to a policy I could not approve and which might have disastrous effects for the Colony. There might come a time even when schemers would find it to their advantage to enter the Council, in order to promote projects for their own personal enrichment or aggrandisement. This has happened in some countries, and if the power became vested in the elected members of Coun- cil it might some day happen here. We cannot claim any monopoly of civic virtue. It is opportunity that often creates the boodler and the rogue. What better illustration of this can be given than the case of JABEZ BALFOUR-the com- ·