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the understanding the Governor would keep the
position constantly under review and, if he saw ways
of improving machinery of Government (interpreting the
phrase broadly on the lines indicated in his letter),
by the nomination of additional members, he would
it. pursue it. Since then, there has been no further
correspondence with the Colonial Office, and there
has been no indication of any change of thought on
the matter on the part of the Unofficial Members of
Councils.
The subject of constitutional reform was
debated inter alia in the House of Commons on 4th
April 1963. Mr. Bottomley suggested that there
should be some re-organisation of local government
and a more representative Legislative Council.
Other members felt that the time was not yet ripe
for any change.
There has been relatively little public
interest in constitutional change during the past
23 years, apart from that shown by the United
Nations Association of Hong Kong and its new offshoot,
the Democratic Self-Government Association (see
separate note). A number of more recent proposals (which receive no widespread support) are noted
below:
(1)
On 10th February, 1961, a report of the local
Self-Government Study Group of the United
Nations Association of Hong Kong was received.
The main recommendations were a wholly elected
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