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of the representation on this Council in terms of both Unofficial and Official
Members.
"You will recall the discussions held with you and with the Unofficial
Members of Executive Council during the latter part of last year, at which we
reached general agreement that responsible opinion in the Colony would welcome
an expansion of the field from which the Governor selects the unofficial
representatives on the Legislative Council.
"The Unofficial Members have also expressed a wish to increase the
scope and intensity of their own, already considerable, individual activities
in the public interest and, in particular, their contact with the general
public.
"We need some reinforcement in numbers to spread this burden and
there is a further and continual demand on Mombers' services on representative
missions outside the Colony.
"But the main purpose of the changes is to enable the Governor to
bring on to this Council persons who, while nominated as individuals, may
novertheless be able to represent views of a wider cross-section of the
community than is possible with the present numbers. This, I know, is very
much in accordance with your own wishes.
"On the other hand, the changes now proposed do not involve any
departure from the principles laid down in 1960, when, as Honourable Members
will recall, the Minister of State for the Colonies, speaking with the
authority of the Secretary of State, declared 'that Her Majesty's Government
consider it is undesirable that there should be any radical or major changes
in the present constitutional position in Hong Kong. This does not, however,
preclude the possibility of minor modifications within the framework of
existing principles to the composition of the Legislative and Executive
Councils,'"
Unofficial Seats
"In accordance, therefore, with these principles the Secretary of
State proposes to ask Her Majesty to increase the number of unofficial seats
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/ on this
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