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SPEECH OF MR. HOPKIN-JENKINS VICE-CHAIRMAN OF LABOUR
PARTY OF HONG KONG IN PRESS CONFERENCE ON 22ND JUNE 1965.
Gentlemen:
In answer to our petition to the Governor concerning the granting of elective representation in the Legislative Council, we have been told that the policy of H. M. Government is not to make any constitutional
Government would consider "any ways changes in Hong Kong but that H. M
within the present constitutional framework in which the people might be
associated with the government of the territory".
Does the British
Government intend we may now ask, to perpetuate the system by which the people are associated with the government of the Territory by the appoint- ment of merchant princes and prominent professional men who, in a highly stratified socio-economic structure like that of Hong Kong, are even more out of touch with the conditions of the labouring classes than men of
this type would be in other countries.
If the Secretary of State wishes
the people to be more closely associated with government, why are not Legislative Council members chosen from the lower strata of society that, in the anachronistic Victorian economic climate of Hong Kong, comprise
at least 80% of the population?
The Labour Party maintains that the making of the unofficial seats elective is not a radical or major change in the constitutional position. At present the unofficial members are not elected but nominated.
It is not a major constitutional change to provide for these unofficial
members to be elected instead of being nominated.
Constitutional development in the British Colonies has usually
passed through the following stages:
1.
A minority of the legislature elected by the people.
2.
A majority of the legislature elected by the people.
3.
The executive made responsible to the legislature, with the Governor
holding veto powers.
4.
Sovereign, or complete, independence.
stage 4
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The Labour Party does not want to see the implementation of
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F