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It wants Hong Kong to remain a British Colony, under the protec-
tive wing of Britain, with the British Government handling its foreign
affairs. It does, however, wish to see stage 1 implemented immediately,
with the implementation of stages 2 and 3 to follow in the foreseeable
future. The creation of an elected minority in the legislative body is
a traditional aspect of British colonial policy. Out of the twenty-four
British Colonies that remained at the end of last year, Hong Kong, the
largest in terms of population, is perhaps the only one, I regret the
only one, without some form of elective representation in the legislative
body. Why is this? It cannot be because of economic inviability. Hong
Kong is financially by far the strongest of all the British Colonies. I
should say that its national budget is greater than the combined budgets
of all the other British Colonies lumped together. Then why has it less
¿
say in its affairs than Fiji or British Guiana or Southern Rhodesia? The
failure of the new Labour Government to grant the people of Hong Kong any
democratic representation in the legislature can only arise from the fear
of a Kuomingtang or Communist take-over of the legislative process. Such
a fear can be discounted in a community where the proportion of locally-born
adult residents, for whom Hong Kong is their only home, is increasing year
by year. And in any case, there would be an adequate safeguard against
such a take-over in the type of Legislative Council advocated by our Party,
a council where to start with, the elected members would be in the minority,
go that the basis of power week.
mula atill lie with tho majority of official
and nominated mombora.
The Labour Party demands that the unofficial seats on the Legis-
lative Council become elective, and that the incumbents of these seats be
elected on a ward system based on a widened franchise.
The franchise
advocated by the Labour Party is clearly set forth in our manifesto: the
franchise, or the right to vote, should be made available to every Hong Kong
resident over twenty-one years of age who has lived here, in the case of
aliens, for five years; and in the case of Commonwealth citizens, for one
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