2.
be one, nevertheless the precedent might well prove embarrassing in future years;
(iii) the minority group is already not too badly represented, having one place on each of the three Councils;
(iv) there was no great demand for further
minority representation, except from Dr.
Rodrigues.
나.
Next, the request of the Federation of Hong Kong Industries that it be permitted to nominate candidates to
all three Councils had to be considered. The Federation has made progress but is neither as firmly established nor as widely representative of industry as I would like it to be, and its counsels are still much dominated by Sir Sik-nin Chau. Indeed, Sir Sik-nin raises something of a problem. He has never happily accepted his retirement from Executive Council and I am told he is inclined to intrigue against the other Chinese unofficial members. Although he may prove difficult to handle as a result, the advice I have received is definitely against giving the Federation a nominee on the Legislative Council, and I agree with this.
5. This decision however made it desirable to try to see if it would prove possible to persuade the Chamber of Commerce and the J.P.s to relinquish their customary rights to nominate. I accordingly tackled Mr. Gordon of the Chamber on the point and asked him whether he thought the Chamber would give up their privilege in return for some assurance that for the present at least, an acceptable British business man would always be on Legislative Council. He was under- standing, but positive that the Chamber would react un- favourably. He said they would regard it as a further unacceptable erosion of the position of the European British community; and although he offered to canvass further opinion discreetly, he was unable to hold out any hope that the answer would be any different. I therefore decided to
drop the matter for the moment because, first, time was short (letters had to go out to the Chamber and the J.P.S within a few days in case elections became necessary) and secondly I did not want to arouse undesirable speculation, if there was little or no hope of a productive result.
t
Rather curiously, such Chinese unofficial opinion. on this point as emerged was also against withdrawing the Chamber's privilege. Page 163 of 344
Page 163
1