441
(19)
nationality, a new anomaly may be introduced as little conducive to the welfare of the Colony as any that are to be got rid of. Obviously there is a difficulty here which the House of Commons is to be left to find out for itself, and then to overcome. the best way it can.
As to the freedom of conscience on the part of the Official Members of Council, by what power or machinery is the House of Commons to secure this? An Official voting against the Governor would probably not consider himself any more secure for a governmental declaration that he was allowed freedom of speech. His promotion or his leave might be stopped, or his social relations embittered, without any one being required to give the reason. "The management of local affairs," would necessitate a definition of local affairs; which also would be required in order to distinguish the local from Imperial expenditure.
No doubt these difficulties are fully recognised by the petitioners, who may have purposely avoided details in order to gain a first hearing for their case in the abstract. And this may be good tactics. All depends on the agency by which the House of Commons is intended to be worked upon.
We have said that out of the British Constitution and its colonial offspring it is hard to deduce any fixed principles which may be safely applied universally; what are called principles being mostly word fetishes. If an exception may be made it would be in favour of the eternal principle of right that "taxation implies representation." To this principle the Hongkong ratepayers refer in a delicate and indirect manner, though some of their advocates in the Press take stronger ground:.
The difficulty of applying the principle in the circumstances was no doubt the reason why the petitioners laid such slight stress on it. They want British representatives, exclusively, but as the ratepayers are British only to the extent of 7 per thousand of the population of the Colony, where would the representative government come in?
These and other difficulties, of theory and practice, will no doubt crumble away before the triturating force of free discussion. As to the broad question whether democratic government is suitable, desirable, or practical for so unique a community as that of Hongkong, it would probably depend less on general considerations than on the personnel. "That which is best administered is best;" and the practical effect of any kind of government is very much a question of whò administers it.
The outside view of Hongkong, the view of visitors and short time residents. appears to be that it has on the whole been very well governed. The Colony compels the admiration of friend and foe alike. Undoubtedly there are and must be flaws. We hope never to live in a place which is free from them. But it is sometimes easier to perceive the slight evils we are actually suffering from than to realise the greater evils which may follow. If Hongkong had a homogeneous population of 250,000 Englishmen, or even of any kind of Europeans there would no doubt be a sufficient number of them eligible for public functions and competent to fairly "represent" the people. But out of seven hundred busy men the chances of getting the requisite number who will honestly devote the necessary time to un- paid public business must always be small. True, in every Council for the last fifteen years there has been one-rarely two-Unofficial Members who have not only given their time, but have entered heart and soul into the affairs of the Colony. But a continuous: succession of such men can scarcely be reckoned on. The fluc- tuating vigour of Chambers of Commerce, which usually depend on the personality of one man, is not of good augury for an honorary and yet efficient public repre- sentation. Even the example of directorates of local companies, which do pay, scarcely affords a certain guarantee of a perfectly effective representation.
There is one principle of more universal application than that of taxation and representation; it is self-interest. The one active man chosen out of a sinall cons