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from the deliberations.
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There the matter rests and it is thought
unlikely that the Committee will make any further reference to the
petition. It is reported, however, that the U.N. Association is
preparing a further submission to the Committee.
Reasons for lack of major constitutional changes
15. Since the war the ostensible objections to any change have been:-
(a) Unsettled conditions in the Far East.
(b)
The difficulties of devising a suitable electoral
system for a colony in which much of the population
is not ordinarily resident and are not British subjects.
(c)
The Chinese, who constitute 99 of the population, have
shown practically no interest.
16.
The fundamental objection is that elected representation on the
Legislative Council, based on a franchise broad enough to have any
significance, is bound to import into Hong Kong the politics of the
two Chinas. This must almost certainly lead to a bitter internal
political struggle, with great dangers to the internal security of
the Colony and the prospect that a state of affairs might arise which
the C.P.G. could not tolerate or would be bound to regard as so
inimical to its interests as to call for the forcible take-over of the
Colony. There have been some significant indications that the C.P.G. does in fact see the matter in this light (see Appendix attached).
Current Policy
17. In April, 1962, the Governor was informed that the Secretary of
State approved the main recommendation in his latest survey of the constitutional position (see paragraph 13 above). This recommendation (in the Governor's own words) read as follows:-
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M
... in the future we should consider changes to the constitution
of Hong Kong (in so far as they affect the Executive and
Legislative Councils) only in relation to the necessity for the
improvement of the machinery of Government in terms of benefit
to the community as a whole, and that, since representative Government with eventual independence is not a possibility for Hong Kong, we should not indulge in the pretence of appearing to advance, by constitutional reforms, towards hfg97471 •"
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