land in the stricken areas.
In the discussions on constitutional reform, it has already been noted that one proposal to meet the desire for more self-govern- ment was that the Sanitary Board should blossom into a municipal council, something which the Board itself had proposed eight years before, in 1886. The unofficials on the Legislative Council opposed the creation of a municipal council. The Retrenchment Committee of 1894 even suggested that the Sanitary Board
1 1 Jurics Ordinance No. 6 of 1887.
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should be abolished and its work taken over directly by the Government through a government official. In 1895 Robinson reported1 that the Executive Committee had agreed to its abolition and that he favoured this because he could not find any suitable Chinese to serve on the Board, since all the Chinese members had resigned from it. He suggested that the head of the Medical Department should take over the work of the Sanitary Board with four assistants. It was because of a new appointment of a Medical Officer of Health in 1895, whom the Board naturally wanted under their own control, but who was attached to the Medical Depart- ment at the instance of the Governor, that the unofficial members of the Board all resigned except one, N. J. Ede. So from 1895 the Board was in a state of suspended animation.
On the question of the Board becoming a municipal council, Robinson told Lord Ripon that there was no general desire for a municipal council, and he again gave the misleading instance that at the Board elections in June 1894, only 25 out of 500 electors took the trouble to vote. He said four unofficial members of the Board resigned because he would not place the Medical Officer of Health under the Board, and the latter now comprised the Director of Public Works, the acting Colonial Surgeon, the Captain Super- intendent of Police and the acting Medical Officer of Health and was working smoothly and efficiently. Chamberlain, who became Colonial Secretary in 1895, refused to agree to the Board's abolition without a further specific recommendation from the Legislative Council. The latter refused to recommend its abolition and it was once more reconstituted, on the advice of four of the unofficial members of the Legislative Council. There were to be three official members, the Colonial Surgeon, the Captain Superintend- ent of Police and the Director of Public Works, and two unofficial members elected by the ratepayers. Robinson admitted to Cham- berlain that while he did not regard this as satisfactory, he had agreed so as not to oppose the unofficial members of the Legislative Council. Robinson now also agreed that the Medical Officer of Health should be attached to the Sanitary Board, and not to the Medical Department as he had first recommended, as its chief adviser and executive officer. As the re-organization aroused
1 Sir William Robinson to Lord Ripon, 18 May 1895, No. 163, CO 129/267. Sir William Robinson to Lord Ripon (Confidential), 22 May 1895. CO
129/267.
6. The Old City Hall until its demolition in 1933. By courtesy of the Hong Kong Government Information Services.
Facing page 155PRAMMENGE
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 1883-1941
155
opposition amongst the British residents, Robinson, in June 1896 conducted a plebiscite of the British community, based on the jury lists, as to whether the Sanitary Board should contain an official or unofficial majority; the result was that 331 (including ‘3 or 4 Chinese') voted for an unofficial majority and 31 against. In reporting this to Chamberlain, Robinson urged once more his view that the Sanitary Board should be abolished, and all sanitary work placed directly under government. Chamberlain was annoyed by this plebiscite, and commented that 'it is inconsistent with crown colony government to seek the guidance of a plebiscite', that it was unsatisfactory since it gave the views of one section only of the community, and moreover, in this case it had led to a result which was opposed to the Governor's own advice. He refused to make any further change in the constitution of the Board until the new governor was able to advise on the question. Chamberlain's stand saved the Sanitary Board.
The Urban Council
The introduction of elections in 1887 portended the change of the Sanitary Board into a full municipal council. It seemed imminent in 1894 with the blessing of the Marquis of Ripon, but Joseph Chamberlain, who succeeded to the Colonial Secretaryship in 1895, set himself against a municipality in Hong Kong 'for this reason among others: that the Colony and the Municipality would be in great measure co-extensive, and it would be almost impossible to draw the line between colonial and municipal matters'.1 At the same time he opposed Robinson's proposal to abolish the Sanitary Board unless this were clearly demanded by public opinion. Thus the Board endured another forty years before the expectations of 1887, and indeed those of 1842, received a measure of fulfilment in the creation of an Urban Council in 1936.
Sir Henry Blake tried to revitalize the Board. It was six years since elections had last been held, and he arranged for them to be resumed. He also nominated two Chinese as two of the four nominated members of the Board under the 1887 Ordinance. Elections were held on 18 December 1899 but aroused little interest or excitement. Though only two nominations were received, Dr William Hartigan and James McKie, a ballot had to Joseph Chamberlain to Sir William Robinson, 29 May 1896, No. 119, CO 129/271.
ANILA
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
be taken nevertheless because the Ordinance made no provision for formally returning unopposed candidates and 19 votes were cast as a formality.
The naval and military authorities complained of the insanitary state of the Colony; Major General W. J. Gascoigne reported the town to be in a filthy and insanitary condition, a charge which Blake indignantly denied,' but in 1899 Blake had to concede a demand that a representative of the Military have a seat on the Board.
Dissatisfaction with the powers of the Board, and the recurrence of plague every spring continued to breed discontent and, in April 1901, the two elected members resigned on the ground that the Board could and would do nothing until it received adequate and independent powers of its own with direct responsibility to the Governor. This feeling must have been widely shared for when the elections were due to be held on 15 April 1901 to fill the vacancies caused by the resignations, not a single nomination was received. The presiding officer J. W. Norton-Kyshe3 complained of public apathy regarding municipal affairs, stating that he had found similar conditions in Penang and Singapore. One member of the general public who attended the proceedings retorted that it was not apathy but disgust at the attempt by government officials to browbeat the public, as a result of which no candidate had come forward, and the presiding officer and officials 'were left to their own devices'. The public opposition expressed itself in a Petition, dated 25 June 1901, signed by over 1,000 persons, mostly European, which was sent in July of that year to Joseph Chamber- lain, asking for a special commission of enquiry into the sanitary condition of Hong Kong; it alleged that in the 19 years since the Chadwick Report, little had been done to implement its findings. The Governor in reply called attention to the Public Health Ordinances, which had been placed on the statute-book, despite the bitter and sustained opposition of the unofficial members of the Legislative Council and other influential members of the community, including the Chinese. He roundly accused the
1 Sir Henry Blake to Joseph Chamberlain, 21 July 1899, No. 197, CO 129/292. * Sir Henry Blake to Joseph Chamberlain, 30 April 1901,
No. 170, CO 129/304.
3 Registrar of the Supreme Court and author of The Laws and Courts of Hong Kong, 2 volumes, Noronha & Co., Hong Kong 1898.
• China Mail, 15 April 1901.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 1883-1941
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sponsors of the Petition of making sanitary problems the excuse for agitating for a municipal council. The whole affair was started by the Chamber of Commerce which wrote to the Governor to complain about Hong Kong's sanitary conditions and the almost yearly recurrence of plague.1 As the Governor replied that the Chamber was accepting reckless and exaggerated statements published in the press without due investigation or adequate knowledge, the Chamber in its resentment organized the Petition to vocalize public discontent.
As a result of the Petition, The Secretary of State sent Osbert Chadwick, already well-known in Hong Kong, and Professor W. J. Simpson, of the London College of Tropical Medicine, to enquire into Hong Kong's sanitary condition. They considered that the Sanitary Board was ineffective and that efficiency demand- ed its replacement by an expert sanitary commission armed with full authority, but the Governor would not recommend the change. On their advice a new draft Public Health and Buildings Ordinance was drawn up, but again there was a great outcry from the property owners who petitioned against it, and gained some concessions. The Ordinance was delayed until 1903 and was amended in December 1903. In the amended ordinance, the Principal Civil Medical Officer who had become president of the Board under the earlier ordinance of that year, was given full control of all sanitary affairs, with direct responsibility to the Government. This put an end to the prolonged experiment of giving the Board authority to make and administer its own bye-laws, subject only to their being passed by the Executive Council. The Ordinance created what was in effect a sanitary department under a government official, and the Board became little more than a consultative committee. Chadwick and Simpson had their way at last.
Sanitary administration continued to be criticized on three main points. It failed adequately to provide for public health as witness the annual visitations of plague, its officials were accused of bribery and corruption, and thirdly, popular support for sanitary measures was lacking because the Board had no real control over policy.
1 Printed together with the Petition in Sessional Papers, 1901, p. 501-564. In an article in Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong and the Treaty Ports, edited by Arnold Wright and H. Cartwright, London 1908, p. 100, reference is made to a plebiscite taken by the Chamber of Commerce, which is presumed to refer to this 1901 Petition but there is no evidence of any formal plebiscite.
}
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Allegations of corruption were so insistent that a Commission of Enquiry into the sanitary administration of the Colony was set up in 1906 under the chairmanship of Henry Pollock1 which issued its report in March 1907. It uncovered widespread evidence of corruption among sanitary officials, British and Chinese alike, which shocked public opinion; it was sympathetic to the complaints of property owners against the 1903 Ordinances which had insisted on improvements without compensation, and it criticized the constitution and powers of the Sanitary Board. It accused the Principal Civil Medical Officer of deliberately engineering the passing of the Amending Ordinance of December 1903 with the sole object of stripping the Sanitary Board of its power and vesting it in himself. The commission also stigmatized this loss of the Board's authority as a disfranchisement of the people.
The Commissioners inter alia recommended a Sanitary and Buildings Board working in four sections-secretarial, medical, engineering and veterinary-consisting of four official and six unofficial members; of the latter, two British and two Chinese should be nominated by the Governor and two elected by the ratepayers; the Board should have power to elect its own president and have complete control over sanitary policy and administration with direct responsibility to the Governor for the expenditure of funds voted by the Legislative Council. These particular recom- mendations regarding the structure of the Board were not accepted; instead, by a Public Health and Buildings Ordinance passed in July 1908, the composition and powers of the Sanitary Board, so often the subject of debate, were finally settled and assumed a form which lasted the remaining 20 years of its life. The Board was to consist of four official and six unofficial members, and, as before, of the latter, two were to be elected by those whose names appeared on the jury lists, and four, two being Chinese, were nominated by the Governor. The Principal Civil Medical Officer was replaced as president by a cadet officer. The Captain Super- intendent of Police also ceased to be a member and was replaced by the Medical Officer of Health. The clectorate was slightly increased by removing the stipulation that those qualified for jury service had also to be ratepayers before being qualified to vote. In addition, all building matters were placed under a separate
1 He was soon succeeded in the chairmanship by E. A. Hewett.
2 Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1907, p. 185.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT, 1883-1941
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Building Authority, and the Board was confined to less contentious and more purely sanitary matters. The Board continued in name, but only as a consultative committee, the cadet officer who became the administrative head of the Sanitary Department being responsi- ble directly to the Governor. He was obliged to lay his departmental estimates and proposals before the Board for discussion before. March 31st each year; he had to consult the Board on all changes giving effect to sanitary bye-laws and on all staff appointments, dismissals, and organization, and to bring all complaints before it, but the Board had no means of enforcing its opinion. The adminis- trative head of the Sanitary Department could not be dismissed by the Board; nor did it have control over its finances. The prin- ciple of an unofficial majority on the Sanitary Board was conceded because of precedent, but made nugatory by whittling away the Board's powers. The electoral principle remained, but under the circumstances the elections aroused little public interest and were in fact quite frequently uncontested.
Despite the election fiasco of 1901, elections were held in 1903 but as only two candidates appeared there was no opposition, and this happened again in 1906. The first election following the 1908 re-organization, held on 20 January 1909 was one of the few in the election series to be keenly contested. A total of 1,327 votes1 were cast for four candidates by a total number on the jury lists of 943; if each had two votes for the two seats there was a maximum vote of 1886, so that 70% of the total votes were cast in this election, a very high poll allowing for the usual high proportion of absentees. In the election due to be held on 19 January 1912 there was no contest, the two candidates being returned unopposed. The election of 22 January 1915 produced a close contest, in which 806 votes were cast for three candidates, out of a total voting strength of 1,325 or nearly 61%. In the following year, on 18 February 1916, an election took place to fill a vacancy, in which the two candidates polled 415 votes out of a total possible vote of 1,148 or 35.3%. In 1919 again only one candidate was nominated for one seat. In 1920 an election was held in which the retiring member was challenged by a candidate who was backed by the Kowloon Residents' Association; the latter was narrowly defeated in a close contest by 191 votes to 164, and though the election caused more excitement than usual, the poll was small. After that no election aroused any
1 China Mail, 21 January 1909.
{
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excitement or contest until that of 1932, on which occasion, one of the candidates, Dr Li Shu-fan, conducted an electioneering camp- aign using motor-cars carrying posters and supported by European and Chinese canvassers. 'It was a campaign such as was never before seen in Hong Kong and deserved to succeed because of its thorough- ness' wrote one press report.1 He defeated his opponent, Mr F. C. Mow Fung by 936 to 161. On this occasion, when all the electioneering arts were employed the total vote was 1,099 out of a possible 1,568, or 70%. At the second election held that same year in November, only one candidate was nominated for the one vacant seat, and up to the abolition of the Sanitary Board in 1936, there were no further elections, the candidates being returned unopposed on each occasion.
Looking over these election results, the conclusion is that there was no great keenness; the 1932 excitement was due to the energy and personality of one candidate. There were few contested elections. The 1909 election was alone remarkable for any mani- festation of civic spirit. In 1919 and 1920, at the height of the reform agitation conducted by the Constitutional Reform Associa- tion, when great public interest in elections might have been expected, there was little excitement over the elections and only a relatively small percentage of voters voted in 1920. Probably no great importance was attached to membership of the Sanitary Board because it had so little power.
The demand for a municipal council in Hong Kong never wholly died, the Kowloon Residents' Association for example put it forward in 1920. Eventually in 1936 the Sanitary Board became the Urban Council; yet it came into being as a result of criticism from within the Government and not as a result of pressure from without. The Sanitary Board in spite of having an elected element, never became a popular body upon which the demand for wider municipal powers could be focussed.
The Sanitary Department functioned side by side with the Medical Department in an uneasy partnership. The chief critic of the public health administration of the Colony was the Director of Medical Services, and particularly the incumbent of that office from 1929-1937, Dr A. R. Wellington. He complained that though
1 China Mail, 12 May 1932.
2 Memorandum on the changes in the Public Health Organization of Hong Kong by Dr A. R. Wellington, Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1937, p. 103.
i
LOCAL GOVERNMENT 1883-1941
161
he was called the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services, he had in fact no responsibility for sanitary services which were under the control and supervision of the Sanitary Department: he pointed out that in none of the Public Health Ordinances was there any reference to the head of the Medical Department. The old office of Colonial Surgeon as originally created in 1843 was charged only with the health of the Police, the inmates of the prison and junior ranks of the government service for whom Government assumed this liability, and originally had no res- ponsibility for the health of the community as a whole. Dr Wellington criticized the existing sanitary administration because there was no one authority which controlled all public health activities. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs, for example, controlled restaurants and Chinese dispensaries amongst other things; the Police dealt with hawkers of foodstuffs and food stalls; the Public Works Department dealt with buildings, sewage and drainage; and the Education Department dealt with school hygiene.
The Director of Medical Services condemned this division of responsibility among various 'independent lay authorities' as he called them, and he argued that all public health activities should come under the control of the Medical Department. He thought that public health problems would normally be best administered by a municipal government, but that in Hong Kong there was no room for a municipality side by side with the Colonial Government. He submitted a scheme of re-organization in 1930. This was considered by the Sanitary Board in 1932, which accepted it but proposed that the functions of the Board should be enlarged, and become a Public Health Board. In the ensuing discussion, the principle of an Urban Council was accepted; legislation was passed in 1935, and the Council came into being on 1 January 1936.
By the 1936 re-organization, the Sanitary Board was replaced by an Urban Council, under the chairmanship of a cadet officer. The Director of Medical and Sanitary Services became the official adviser to the Council on all matters pertaining to public health, and occupied the position of vice-chairman of the Council ex officio, and he controlled the Council's technical staff including health officers, veterinary surgeons and sanitary inspectors.
The new Urban Council consisted of not more than thirteen members, of whom five were official members, and eight unofficial members. The former were the chairman and head of the Sanitary
1
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
Department, the Director of Medical Services as vice-chairman, Director of Public Works, Secretary of Chinese Affairs, and the Inspector General of Police. Of the unofficial members two were elected by those whose names appeared on the jury list or were exempted by the nature of their occupation from jury service, the remaining six, of whom three were to be Chinese, were nominated by the Governor. The unofficial members serving on the old Sanitary Board were to continue during their terms, and all un- official members were to hold office for three years. The powers of the Council were not enlarged so as to be commensurate with its new high-sounding name, but subsequent legislative amend- ments did give it more consultative powers, and widened the scope of its work.
The creation of the Urban Council did not stimulate any renewed interest among the electorate in the choice of its elected members. Only one candidate was nominated at the first election fixed for 22 January 1936. The first contested election did not occur until 29 February 1940, and there was another contest in 1941, in each case the two opponents were members of the Portuguese com- munity.
The main interest in membership of the Urban Council, as of the old Sanitary Board, lay in the opportunity of serving an administrative apprenticeship, with the reasonable expectation
of a reversionary right to membership of the Legislative Council.
CHAPTER X
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
The Administrative Departments, 1841–1941
WHEN in 1841 Captain Charles Elliot took over Hong Kong, he made a number of appointments, e.g. magistrate, harbour master, assistant harbour master, clerks of works and land officer, to form a skeleton administration, but as the cession of the Island had not yet been provided for by a definitive treaty these appointments were not confirmed by the Home Government. Only in September 1843 did the Secretary of State, after consultation with Sir Henry Pottinger, decide on the principal administrative officers required and their annual salaries. They were: Governor (and Superintend- ent of Trade) £6,000, Colonial Secretary £1,800, Colonial Chaplain £700, Chief Justice £3,0001 Attorney-General £1,500, Chief Magistrate £1,200, Colonial Auditor £1,000, Surveyor-General £1,000 and Harbour Master £600. They became heads of small departments and with their staffs formed the first civil service in Hong Kong. The top officials were recruited in England3 and the assistants and junior staff were recruited locally. The staff of all grades envisaged in 1843 totalled 28 persons. The staff of the Superintendent of Trade was kept separate, except that respon- sibility for the finances of the treaty ports rested with the Colonial Treasurer, and appeals from the consular courts lay in the Supreme Court of the Colony. The naval and military forces and the Post Office remained under direct British Government control.
Almost immediately three more officials were needed, a medical officer, an officer in charge of registration of the Chinese, and a police superintendent.
Pottinger, who had asked for a medical officer, was told to make use of local practitioners to attend to prisoners and police-the only people for whose health the Government assumed responsi- bility. However, in 1844 the prevalence of sickness, especially fever, led Davis to appoint a Dr Dill as Colonial Surgeon, and this
1 The salary had to be raised to this amount to attract any candidate for the
post,
2
3
Except the Auditor who was attached to the Colonial Treasurer's department.
Except that Lt. W. Pedder, R.N., Harbour Master and Major William Caine, Chief Magistrate, had their appointments by Elliot confirmed.
1
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
was accepted by the Colonial Office; five years later a small hospital was sanctioned for which the post of Medical Superinten- dent was created before 1864. A port health officer had to be appointed in 1869 following cases of infection brought by visiting ships. The Colonial Surgeon was renamed Principal Civil Medical Officer in 1897, and in 1928 became Director of Medical Services, and in 1936 Director of Medical and Health Services with a cor- responding widening of his responsibilities.
A Registrar-General was appointed by Davis in 1844 to register all the Chinese in order to combat triad societies and assist in the better maintenance of law and order. The first to hold the office was Samuel Fearon, an interpreter on the staff of the Superinten- dent of Trade who later became the first professor of Chinese at King's College, London. This official's close contact with the Chinese demanded a proficiency in the Chinese language, which in turn, led him gradually to assume responsibility for all questions relating to the Chinese and to be the channel of communication between them and the Government. In 1858, this side of his duties received statutory recognition and the additional title 'Protector of the Chinese'. As the Chinese community grew, so did his duties and status, and in 1884 he became an ex officio member of the Legislative Council. In 1913, he became known as Secretary Chinese Affairs. In 1938 a Labour Officer was added to his staff to deal with trade unions, wages and conditions of work.
for
The third office Davis created was that of Superintendent of Police. In 1845 Charles May was recruited from England to organize a police force and a police department came into being. From superintendent, the title was elevated to Captain Superinten- dent on the appointment of M. W. Deane, one of the first cadet officers, to that post in 1869; in 1929 it became known as Inspector General of Police and ten years later in 1939 as Commissioner of
Police.
Davis was responsible for the origins of the Education Depart- ment, which grew up haphazardly from humble beginnings in 1847 when three Chinese vernacular schools were each given a grant of $10 per month, and a committee was appointed to report and administer these sums. The first appointment of Inspector of Schools was made in 1856 and then in 1862, a headmaster for the Government Central School was recruited from Britain who also combined the duties of Inspector of Schools.
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
165
The government printing press was authorized in 1853 and under Bowring, began to operate under the supervision of the government printer, D. Noronha; it never evolved into an inde- pendent government department.
An Auditor had been appointed to the staff of the Colonial Treasurer in 1844, but when economies were effected in accordance with the recommendations of the 1847 Parliamentary Select Committee, the Colonial Secretary combined the duties of the post with his own. In 1857 this arrangement was ended, and an Auditor-General was appointed to audit the colonial and consular accounts; he had to submit all accounts in detail to the Colonial Office for further audit. His duties were again merged with those of the Colonial Secretary in 1870 on the retirement of W. H. Rennie, and the audit became purely local. In 1890 at the instance of the Colonial Office, audit by the Colonial Audit Department in London was resumed and an auditor (not auditor-general), was appointed, and though he was employed locally, his main respon- sibility was to his departmental superiors in Whitehall.
A new government department came into being on 1 May 1860 when a Postmaster General was appointed to take over the Post Office from the British authorities at a salary of £800 a year.
Another department, the Import and Export Department, was set up in 1886 as a result of an agreement with China which ended the Hong Kong 'blockade'. The Hong Kong Government under- took to supervise, control and report on the import and export of opium in order to assist the Chinese customs officials to check smuggling in that commodity. The Import and Export Depart- ment provided the machinery to carry out the terms of the agree- ment, and as Hong Kong was a free port, its work was necessarily confined to the control of the opium trade. It became more important in 1909, when import duties were first imposed on luxury articles such as wines and spirits, to make up for revenue lost as a result of restrictions imposed by the Secretary of State on the opium trade. Its responsibilities were much increased in 1919 when details of imports and exports into and out of the Colony had to be declared and the Department had the duty of compiling the
annual trade statistics.
In 1883 the beginnings of a Sanitary Department came with the appointment of a Sanitary Inspector and the setting up of the Sanitary Board; its history has already been given and need not
***** D' mi
¿
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
be repeated. In 1883 an assistant Colonial Secretary was appointed. The Public Works Department expanded with the growth of the Colony and in April 1892 the name of the head of the department was changed from Surveyor-General to Director of Public Works. A Superintendent of Government Gardens was appointed in 1861, and a government gardens and tree planting department attached to the Surveyor-General's department came into existence in 1872; seven years later it became an independent government department under a Botanical Superintendent. In 1905 it became known as the Botanical and Forestry Department.
2
In one respect there was some retrenchment. The practice had been to support the Established Church in the Colonies by con- tributing to the salaries of Anglican clergy and to the cost of Anglican churches from public funds.1 In Hong Kong the Colonial Chaplain was a salaried government official and the building of the Anglican cathedral was assisted by a Hong Kong government grant of £4,639 which paid for two-thirds of the costs. The Anglican bishop was also given official recognition by being appointed under Letters Patent, though no part of his salary came from local public funds. Following the great Colenso controversy in South Africa, all Anglican colonial bishoprics were disestablished: in Hong Kong this took effect with the appointment of Bishop Burdon in 1874, from which date the Anglican bishopric became a purely ecclesiastical appointment. In 1882 it was further decided that the Colonial Chaplaincy should no longer form part of the official establishment; this was carried into effect on the retirement of the existing incumbent in 1892, when his successor became Cathedral Chaplain with a salary provided out of cathedral funds. Since 1892, all churches in Hong Kong have been on the same footing in relation to government.
3
Before the end of the 19th century, other small departments were created. A Gunpowder Department apparently existed for a short time, and the Lighthouses Department was established in 1875 following the erection of lighthouses at Cape D'Aguilar and Green Island in that year and the Observatory came in 1883. The
1 Grants of land and occasionally building grants were made to other Christian denominations and charitable bodies, c.g. the Morrison Education Society.
2 A pension from public funds was voted to the first Bishop of Victoria, Bishop George Smith, when he retired in 1864.
See Sir Charles Collins, Public Administration in Hong Kong, London
1952, p. 130.
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
167
Gaol and Land Registry were also organized as separate depart- ments. The Gaol was first built in 1843 and placed under a sheriff responsible to the Police Magistrate. A governor of the gaol was appointed in 1858 and in 1863 became known as the Superinten- dent of Victoria Gaol. The head of the department became Super- intendent of Prisons in 1920 and Commissioner of Prisons in 1938. The land registry was first organized as a department of the Surveyor-General's office and became independent in 1883 under a Land Officer and Official Receiver, who in 1912 became known simply as Land Officer.
The organization of the New Territories as a separate department under two District Officers, North and South, has already been. referred to.
The 20th century saw a great expansion in the government services, largely because governments have undertaken more functions. In 1901, the total number of employees of all grades in the government service was 715; in 1938 the figure was 2,886.
The Colonial Treasurer was replaced in 1938 by an administra- tive officer, the Financial Secretary, who was responsible for all financial questions and policy. In 1938 an Inland Revenue Depart- ment was set up to deal with income tax which was then being imposed for the first time. Further expansion arose from technical developments, for example, a Civil Aviation Department was set up in 1931, attached to the Harbour Master's Department.
In education, the Inspector of Schools became the Director of Education in 1909. The Kowloon-Canton Railway was completed in
and was operated directly by government under a Manager appointed in 1911 and who became known as Manager and Chief Engineer until the Second World War.
1910
When war came in 1939, certain departments relating to the war were created including Air Raid Precautions Officer, Custodian of Enemy Property, Controller of Trade, Controller of Food, and Censor and Detaining Officer.
Arrangements for the administration of justice have grown steadily through the Colony's history. A magistrate was appointed in 1841 and became Chief Magistrate when an assistant was found to be necessary in 1843. The Supreme Court under a Chief Justice was set up in 1844, with civil and criminal jurisdiction and with a registrar and interpreters. A summary court under a judge was established in 1861, and in 1873 this became part of the Supreme
.
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Court and a puisne judge appointed. Arrangements for a Court of Appeal were made in 1912 to consist of three judges, the two Hong Kong judges being joined for this purpose by the British judge in Shanghai or by a local barrister of high standing.
The first magistrates appointed had no specific legal qualifica- tions, though Caine had had considerable army experience in the judge-advocate general's department. The first qualified barrister was appointed magistrate in 1858. Some effort was made to asso- ciate the unpaid Justice of the Peace with the work of the lower courts, but generally, all magistrates have been stipendiary. In 1861, the two magistrates were made co-equal and the post of Chief Magistrate disappeared. By 1938 there were two magistrates in Kowloon and two in Victoria.
The appointment of government law officers followed the usual British pattern. Pottinger appointed a temporary legal advisor in 1843 until an attorney-general appointed from home could arrive in 1844. A Crown Solicitor was first appointed in 1851 to act also as deputy sheriff and coroner.
A most important development, carried out under Sir Hercules Robinson, was the inauguration in 1861 of the cadet scheme, by which young men of promise were recruited in Britain by com- petitive examination, and who, after further training in the Chinese language (Cantonese) were to be regarded as candidates for promo- tion in due course to the highest administrative posts. The term cadet officer to denote the administrative grade of officers in the Hong Kong Government service remained in use for almost a century, until 1960. The scheme was dropped by Sir Arthur Kennedy, Governor 1872-1877, but was reintroduced by Sir George Bowen.
Sir Hercules Robinson was also responsible for the first com- prehensive review of salaries of those grades recruited locally in which government had to compete with local commercial firms, as a result of which the first general advance in salaries had to be conceded. Up to 1862 superannuation arrangements were on a haphazard basis. A private contributory superannuation scheme was operated, and pensions for retiring officers were voted by the Legislative Council on the recommendation of the Governor, each case being considered individually. In that year, the Pension Ordinance, No. 10 of 1862, established pensions for senior officials on a non-contributory basis. Robinson had proposed a contributory
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
169
scheme but the Secretary of State ruled against this, in order to bring the pension arrangements in Hong Kong into line with those being adopted in other British colonies at this time.
Under Sir Arthur Kennedy a system of recruitment by public examination for the lower ranks of the civil service was begun in 1875, and thus opened the way to a greatly extended and sys- tematized recruitment of local personnel. The depreciation in the value of the dollar led to much discontent among the officials over the diminishing value of their salaries which were paid in silver dollars. In 1902 salaries were placed on a sterling basis, in a salary scheme which for the first time put salaries, except for certain senior officers, such as the Chief Justice, Colonial Secretary and Attorney-General on an incremental basis and arranged for more clearly defined grades.
One important feature of the inter-war years was a demand for the appointment of local people to more senior posts in the govern- ment service. There were Retrenchment Commissions in 1909 and 1932, set up to suggest economies. That of 1932 urged the appoint- ment of Asians to positions of greater responsibility and pointed to the Medical and Sanitary Departments as those most likely to offer opportunities for non-European graduates being produced by the University of Hong Kong.1 It also suggested the appointment of Chinese nurses. This policy, vigorously advocated in the Legislative Council by Sir Man Kam Lo, was accepted by the Governor, Sir Andrew Caldecott, not solely on ground of economy. In the 1935 budget debate the acting Colonial Secretary declared that the 'Government has fully and frankly accepted the policy of replacing wherever possible European by Asiatic employees'. In 1936 the principle was laid down that before any vacancy was advertised in the United Kingdom, local candidates with the necessary qualifications were to be considered. The expansion of the
government services thus began to bring improved opportuni- ties to local people for employment in the government service, though this policy was not carried as far nor pursued as rapidly as many would have liked.
1
Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1932, pp. 52−3.
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The Office of Lieutenant-Governor
In his dispatch of 29 May 1896, Joseph Chamberlain referred to the decision that the Senior Military Officer would in future administer the government in the absence of the Governor. In this connection a brief history of the office of Lieutenant-Governor might be of interest.
the
The Hong Kong Charter of 5 April 1843 provided that if the Governor were absent from the Colony or were from any cause unable to act, then his powers should devolve upon a Lieutenant- Governor, or if no Lieutenant-Governor were appointed, upon person holding the office of Colonial Secretary. In 1843, the inten- tion was that the office of Lieutenant-Governor should be held by the senior military officer. Anglo-Chinese relations had been uncer- tain and difficult, and the fear remained that despite the treaty settlement of 1842, British commerce might still need protection. Hong Kong therefore had a military importance which pointed to the advantage of the garrison commander acting as the deputy for Governor and Superintendent of Trade. In 1844 General D'Aguilar assumed this post, and he and his successors took control of the administration in the absence of the Governor as a matter of course. This arrangement continued until 1854 in which year Sir Samuel George Bonham retired. Then mainly as a measure of economy as has been explained above, it was decided to separate the post
of Superintendent of Trade from that of Governor of the Colony, and replace the latter post by a lieutenant-governor. But this could not be done without fresh legislation, so as a practical solution Sir John Bowring, the next Superintendent of Trade, became nominal Governor of Hong Kong, and William Caine, the Colonial Secretary, became Lieutenant-Governor, with full control over the Colony's administration. The arrangement broke down and, Bowring was made Governor with full powers, but without any increase in salary. Caine retained the position of Lieutenant- Governor and naturally deputized for Bowring as required. For most of the five years that Caine held it, the post was a sinecure.
When Caine retired in 1859 the post of Lieutenant-Governor was not filled, but held temporarily by the Governor himself during the period between his appointment and his actual arrival in the Colony. Thus Sir Hercules Robinson was commissioned as Lieutenant- Governor in June 1859 and assumed the governorship on his
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
171
arrival in September 1859. When Robinson returned home on leave, W. T. Mercer, the Colonial Secretary, was chosen in pre- ference to the Senior Military Officer to deputize for the Governor and administered the government from July 1862 until February 1864, and again, when Robinson left to take up the governorship of Ceylon, from March 1865 until the arrival of Sir Richard MacDonnell in March 1866. This was probably due to Mercer's own senior position in the Colony, as well as to the return of more peaceful conditions after the treaties of 1858 and 1860 which made it less likely for serious calls to be made on the military. Another factor in the change was the introduction of civil service recruit- ment by examination in 1861 aimed at building up a professional civil service in the Colony, which could hardly be done without offering opportunities of promotion.
Three years later, in 1868, the Imperial Government after much discussion of the principle involved, decided to revert to the original practice of giving the Major General in Command of the Hong Kong garrison a commission as Lieutenant-Governor. In October of that year, MacDonnell applied for leave and recom- mended J. Gardiner Austin, the Colonial Secretary, as the Officer Administering the Government following the precedent set by Mercer. He was informed that a General was being sent out with a commission as lieutenant-governor and as a temporary measure Major General J. R. Brunker came from Japan in January 1869 to take temporary charge of the government for the forty-two days that the Governor was away. He died three months later, in April, and his successor, Major General H. W. Whitfield, arrived armed with a lieutenant-governor's commission. Thus when MacDonnell returned to England on leave in April 1879, Whitfield accordingly deputized for him.
This reversion to a military deputy for the governor was not a success. Whitfield made many mistakes, among which he criticized the Secretary of State himself over the disposal of the special gambling fund; he suspended senior police personnel as a
William Thomas Mercer (1800-?). Nephew of Sir John Davis, whom he accompanied to Hong Kong in 1844 as his private secretary. Colonial Treasurer in 1847 and Colonial Secretary 1854 on the promotion of William Caine to be Lieutenant-Governor.
MacDonnell had licensed gambling houses and incurred great criticism. regarded as normal revenue, and the gambling licence fees had therefore to go into a special fund to be used for police and other special purposes.
·
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
preliminary to police reform; and he completely reversed Mac- Donnell's licensing of gambling. Whitfield had bluntly to be told to make no change of policy while MacDonnell was away. When Whitfield resigned in June 1874, a change was decided upon and the War Office was informed that the Hong Kong Colonial Secretary would in future administer the government in the absence of the Governor.1 This change was supported by the arguments that a senior Hong Kong civil servant was more conver- sant with the questions that might come up, and also it was important that members of the civil service should not feel themselves debarred from assuming the highest positions. Major General Colborne who followed Whitfield was given a special commission, specially worded, to administer the government only in exceptional circumstances and for special civil reasons. So when in October 1874, Kennedy was invited by Lord Carnarvon to return to England for consultations, J. Gardener Austin, the Colonial Secretary, administered the government. Colborne was extremely annoyed at being passed over and Kennedy reported that it has nearly caused General Colborne a fit. He has fairly exploded. . .'. The General argued that as he took precedence next to the Governor he should have been the Officer Administer- ing the Government. Because of this incident, the clause in the Hong Kong Charter dealing with the position of lieutenant- governor was revised in 8 June 1875.2 The amendment provided that the Lieutenant-Governor should deputize for the Governor should the latter be unable for any reason to act, or, if no one were appointed Lieutenant-Governor, then the Colonial Secretary should
act for the Governor, 'subject to such instructions as the Governor may have received'. These words were specially added to keep control firmly in the hands of the Colonial Office in London. On 9 April 1877, this section was further amended; the lieutenant- governor was to act for the governor if the latter were for any reason incapacitated, but if none were appointed, the Colonial Secretary was to act for him; 'until Her Majesty's pleasure should be made known and in accordance with any instructions received'. Colborne remained sullen and unco-operative and refused to take his seat on the Executive Council. Austin administered the 1 Minute on private letter from Kennedy to Herbert, October 1874, CO
129/168.
2 CO 381/35-
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
173
government from March to December 1875 as Colonial Secretary. This remained the settled government policy in the matter until the governorship of Sir George Bowen (1883-1885).
Bowen with twenty years as a colonial governor assumed the role of an elder statesman, and there were no colonial institutions upon which he did not regard himself qualified to pass judgment. In 1883 his plans for constitutional reorganization led him to pronounce upon this question of the Lieutenant-Governor. There had been much shuffling of offices each time the Colonial Secretary administered the government, so he proposed1 that the General Officer commanding the troops in Hong Kong should administer
the
government in the absence of the Governor, as had been the original practice. But he went even further and argued that the General ought to be the Governor as at Gibraltar and Bermuda. 'Hong Kong is the Gibraltar of the East' he kept repeating, and asserted that 'In fact neither Gibraltar nor Hong Kong is a Colony in the proper sense of the term'. Derby replied agreeing that there would be some disturbance of work if the Colonial Secretary acted as deputy for the Governor but that this was not peculiar to Hong Kong; he said that the matter had been carefully discussed in 1864 and 1866 and 1871 and it had ultimately been decided that it was preferable to have the Colonial Secretary as deputy for the Governor because it helped to train future governors and gave men a chance to show their ability. Probably the decision in 1871 in favour of the Colonial Secretary was influenced by the Civil Service reform of 1870, which opened the Home Government service to examination and created a professional spirit and the opportunity of a professional career.
Bowen continued to press the claims of the General, and Derby eventually agreed that in the absence of the Governor and the Colonial Secretary, the General should administer the government, and that he would in future be given a dormant commission to this effect. This was adopted, and so when Bowen went on short leave to Japan in summer of 1885, and Marsh, the Colonial Secretary being also at that time on leave, Major General W. G. Cameron administered the government; but when later in that year Bowen retired and Marsh had returned, it was the latter who took over. Marsh himself left on retirement before Bowen's successor, Sir
Sir George Bowen to Earl of Derby, 23 May 1883, No. 82, CO 129/209. * Earl of Derby to Sir George Bowen, 23 August 1883, No. 174, CO 129/200•
1
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
William Des Voeux, arrived, and Major General Cameron again took over. In May 1891 Des Voeux returned to Britain on retire- ment, and Fleming,1 the Colonial Secretary, being also on leave, Major General Digby Barker assumed the government. He urged that he should continue to be the officer administering the govern- ment, even after Fleming returned to the Colony, as he was expected to do, before the new Governor, Sir William Robinson arrived. In his reply, Lord Knutsford repeated the ruling that in the absence of the Governor, the Colonial Secretary should be the officer administering the government, when he was in the Colony. To avoid arguments, Fleming's leave was extended so that he would arrive with the new governor, leaving Barker in charge until then. In 1895, the question of having the General as the Governor's deputy to act in his absence was again considered by the Home Government. Joseph Chamberlain, the Unionist Colonial Secretary of State wrote confidentially to Robinson asking if it were prefer- able to have the General or the Colonial Secretary as the officer administering the government in the absence of the Governor and suggesting that there was something be said for the former 'in the present state of affairs in the Far East'. In his reply3 Robinson wrote that in view of the unsettled conditions in the Far East, his view was that the General should assume the government in the absence of the Governor. As a result, the change was made, and when Robinson left the Colony in February 1898, Major General Wilsone Black became the acting governor. There was indeed, as Chamberlain urged, 'something to be said' for restoring the general to his previous position as acting for the governor in his absence. The whole Far East was in a state of tension. Military works, fortifications, accommodation and land to strengthen the Colony's defences posed serious problems. The military contribution had been doubled and created constitutional issues. It was therefore reasonable that the General should be more closely associated with the administration. He had been a member of the Executive Council since 1844 and his position as prospective officer administering the government made it logical that he should be a member of the
1 Sir Francis Fleming (1842-1922). Governor of Sierra Leone, 1892, Governor of the Leeward Islands, 1895-1901.
J. Chamberlain to Sir William Robinson (Confidential), 21 October 1895,
CO 129/267.
Sir William Robinson to J. Chamberlain (Confidential), 4 December 1895,
CO 129/269.
ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
175
Legislative Council and this was done in 1896. With the easing of the tension after the Boxer troubles of 1900 and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902, defence needs were less insistent and the practice of having the Colonial Secretary as the officer administering the Government was revived in December 1903, when the Colonial Secretary F. H. May, became Officer Administering the Govern- ment on the departure of the Governor, Sir Henry Blake. The last General to act as deputy was Sir William Gascoigne, February to September 1902. Indeed this practice had only been departed from with some reluctance and because the tenseness of international relations made it advisable. It was recognized that the Colonial Secretary had some claim in the matter, and Lockhart, the Colonial Secretary who had been the victim of the change of 1895 was consoled by being appointed the first civilian Commissioner of Weihaiwei in 1902.
After 1902, the Colonial Secretary has invariably deputized for the Governor when necessary and the office of Lieutenant- Governor has lapsed.
—-
t
Part III
THE CONSTITUTION IN THE
POST-WAR PERIOD
1945-1962
7. The Central District, 1963. The City Hall is in the foreground; the domed Supreme Court building is in the centre, the Anglican Cathedral of St. John in the upper left, with the Central Government Offices just behind. Government House is in the top centre.
By courtesy of Crown Lands and Surveys, Hong Kong Government.
8. The procession of Judges at the ceremonial opening of the Assizes, January
1960.
By courtesy of the Hong Kong Government Information Services.
Between pages 178–179
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CHAPTER XI
THE YOUNG PLAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
The Restoration of British Authority
DURING the First World War and the inter-war years, Japan's industrial development and military power gave her the dominant role in the Far East, despite the attempt made at the Washington Conference in 1922 to limit her naval armaments. With the out- break of the Second World War in Europe, the Japanese military and naval leaders saw an opportunity of establishing Japan's hegemony over the whole Pacific area. On the 7 December 1941 Japan struck at Pearl Harbour and on the same day, allowing for the international date line, attacked Hong Kong, which surrender- ed on Christmas day, after a stubborn fight of 17 days.
For the next three years and seven months the Japanese were in control. War shortages caused great distress to a Chinese population which had been swollen to double its size by refugees from the area of Japanese military operations around Canton, and which the new Japanese rulers proceeded to reduce by harsh methods to less than 600,000, less in fact than the 1931 census figure, one third of whom were farmers and fishermen living on their own resources. The Allied blockade denied supplies to Hong Kong and led inevitably to the neglect of public services such as communications, malarial control, and medical services. Trade dwindled. All British institutions were abolished. Under General Rensuke Isogai a military government was set up. It introduced some Japanese administrative institutions such as the District Administrative Offices headed by Japanese in consultation with local Chinese residents, which were responsible for such measures as food-rationing. Two councils, the Chinese Representative Council, and the Chinese Co-operative Council, were set up. They were entirely Chinese bodies having consultative status only and it is doubtful if they influenced Japanese policy as they were primarily agencies through which the instructions of the Japanees were made known; likewise no Chinese served on the supreme Japanese governing body. Under war conditions little else was to be expected. Many Chinese preferred obscurity to collaboration
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
though some took the view that it was better to work with the Japanese in the hope of mollifying the severities of the occupa- tion. Behind the Japanese administration stood the dreaded kampetei.1
Japan's collapse in 1945 mercifully spared the Colony the ordeal of a military reconquest. The restoration of British authority was by no means assured and its fate was the subject of some desultory discussion among the Allies. American sentiment was strongly anti-colonial by tradition and President Roosevelt, to whom the war was a crusade against the enemies of human freedom, was influenced by it. Clause 3 of the Altantic Charter dealing with 'the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live', and the restoration of 'sovereign rights and self- government to those who have been forcibly deprived of them', was intended by him to apply as much to former colonial peoples as to those liberated from Nazi and Japanese militarism. United States opinion over-simplified the colonial problem by arguing that it was illogical to represent the war as a struggle for human freedom and to deny it to colonial peoples. The President therefore'. once or twice urged the British to give up Hong Kong as a gesture of good will'.2
At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, at which China was unrepresented and British not fully consulted in that part of the discussions which concerned the Far East, Roosevelt urged in private conversations with Stalin that Hong Kong should be given back to China or internationalized as a free port. United States official opinion did not favour British retention of Hong Kong. A further factor against the British keeping Hong Kong lay in the hopes aroused by the 1943 treaty undertakings by Britain and the United States to end the unequal treaty' system and give up their special privileges and concessions in China. The Chinese hoped
1 This brief account is based on conversation with Chinese who were resident
in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation.
2 R. E. Sherwood, The White House Papers of Henry L. Hopkins, London 1948,
pp. 719-9.
4
E. Roosevelt, As He Saw It, New York 1946, pp. 223-4-
Treaty between the United States and China for the Relinquishment of Extra-territorial Rights in China and the Regulation of Related Matters signed
United States Relations with China, Department of State Publication 3573; Far Eastern Series 30, 1949, p. 514. A similar Sino-British Treaty was at the same time.
signed
1
THE YOUNG PLAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM 181
this would include Hong Kong, though the treaties made no reference to the rendition of ceded territory.1
The administration of territory reconquered during the War was under the control of the Allied Combined Civil Affairs Com- mittee which ruled that the Chief Allied Commander was to follow in a liberated country such policy as was laid down by the govern- ment which exercised authority over it before the enemy occupa- tion. Since 1943 a small planning unit which had been working in the Colonial Office on plans for the resumption of British adminis- tration in Hong Kong, assumed the functions of a British Civil Affairs Staff, all with military rank, under the above Allied arrange- ments. But there was some doubt if this British military adminis- tration would be allowed to function in Hong Kong because the latter came within the area in which Generalissimo Chiang Kai- shek was the Allied Commander-in-Chief, and he had grounds for hoping that the Colony would be retroceded to China as part of a general settlement in the Far East. Further, the Allied Combined Civil Affairs Committee's ruling regarding policy to be followed in a liberated country, applied only to territory recovered 'as the result of an operation'. This was interpreted by the United States to mean that it did not apply in such cases as Hong Kong where the territory was recovered as a result of the general Japanese surrender and not as the result of a specific military operation.*
The surrender of Japan came sooner than expected and a naval squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Cecil Harcourt was detached from the British Pacific Fleet to receive the surrender of the Japanese at Hong Kong and restore British authority. When Chiang Kai- shek protested, the surrender was received in the name of both British and Chinese Governments, on 30 August 1945. Two weeks earlier, on 16 August the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, Mr (later Sir) F. C. Gimson, who had been interned at Stanley, assumed temporary control until 7 September when the British Civil Affairs Unit arrived to set up a military administration under the Admiral. The normal civil administration was restored on I May 1946 by the return to Hong Kong of the Governor, Sir Mark
1 China was included in the Four Power Declaration on General Security signed at Moscow on 30 October 1943 recognizing the right of China to partici- pate in the peace negotiations and in the establishment of machinery for post- war international co-operation. Ibid., p. 37.
* See F. S. V. Dennison, British Military Administration in the Far East 1943-6. H.M.S.O., London 1956, p. 147.
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Young,1 who had been interned in Formosa during the War. His first announcement was to promise a measure of constitutional reform, whereby the people of the Colony might be given a fuller and more responsible share in the management of their own affairs. The restoration of British rule was not therefore intended to be a simple restoration of conditions as they had been before the War.
The Young Plan
On 1 May 1946 civil government was restored in Hong Kong when Sir Mark Young returned to the Colony to resume his interrupted governorship. At the ceremony which marked that occasion, he broadcast the following important statement on a revision of the Hong Kong constitution:
His Majesty's Government has under consideration the means by which in Hong Kong, as elsewhere in the Colonial Empire, the inhabitants of the Territory can be given a fuller and more responsible share in the management of their own affairs. One possible method of achieving this end would be by handing over certain functions of internal administration, hitherto exercised by the Government, to a Municipal Council constituted on a fully representative basis. The establishment of such a Council, and the transference to it of im- portant functions of government might, it is believed, be an appro- priate and acceptable means of affording to all communities in Hong Kong an opportunity of more active participation, through their responsible representatives, in the administration of the Territory. But before a decision is taken on the methods of giving effect to the intentions of His Majesty's Government, it is considered essential that the important issues involved should be thoroughly examined in Hong Kong itself, the fullest account being taken of the views and wishes of the inhabitants. The Governor has accordingly been in- structed to examine the whole question, in consultation with the representatives of all sections of the community, and to submit a report at an early date, bearing in mind the policy of His Majesty's Government that the constitution should be revised on a more liberal basis as soon as possible. The aim will be to settle and to announce NOT later than the end of the year the principles on which that
revision should be based.2
Leone, 1928; Chief Secretary to the Government of Palestine, 1939; Governor Sir Mark Aitchison Young, G.C.M.G., 1946. Colonial Secretary, Sierra September 1941. Prisoner-of-war 1941-45. Resumed Governorship of Hong Kong, 1946-47. (Who's Who, 1961)
Kong,
2 South China Morning Post and The Hong Kong Telegraph, z May 1946.
THE YOUNG PLAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM 183
Not only was there a clear intention of liberalizing the constitu- tion, but the method of achieving it was also to be liberal, namely through consultation with all sections of the community; and it should be noted that the aim was to give 'a fuller and more re- sponsible share in the management of their own affairs' to 'the inhabitants', and not only to those of British nationality.
There were many factors making for the granting of a greater measure of self-government to the colonies. The Charter of the United Nations Chapter XI, Art. 73, demanded that member nations, in
the administration of territories whose peoples have not yet attained a full measure of self-government recognise the principle that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount, and accept as a sacred trust the obligation to promote to the utmost the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories, and to this end ... to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions according to the particular circumstances of each territory and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement. . . .
Quite apart from this international obligation under the Charter of the United Nations, British policy had long sought this same objective, and there was a genuine desire to continue to carry overseas the British traditions of constitutional freedom on the model of Westminster, and of respect for the rights of all peoples. A very important factor was the degree to which colonial peoples supported Britain with men and material in the struggle against militarism and dictatorship during the War. This unsolicited tribute to British colonial rule by the colonies themselves evoked in response a willing assumption by Britain of the duty of preparing colonial peoples for self-government. The Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940, for example, arranged for financial aid to the colonies in the form of outright grants for capital projects and also for recurrent expenditure on important services such as education, agriculture, health and research. The aim as expressed in this Act, was material welfare and development as 'the primary requirement upon which advance in other directions is largely consequential'. It was realized that besides the Victorian ideal of law and order, government action was demanded in many fields previously left to private enterprise, the cost of which could only be met from increased economic development. Government was
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
becoming more complicated and more expensive, and self-govern- ment in underdeveloped areas was therefore correspondingly more difficult to achieve. The ideal of self-government needed to be restated in the light of modern conditions; this was defined by Colonel Oliver Stanley speaking in the House of Commons on 13 July 1943:
We are pledged to guide colonial people along the path to self- government within the British Empire. We are pledged to build up their social and economic institutions, and we are pledged to develop their natural resources.1
In 1948, British colonial policy was expressed in these words:
The central purpose of British colonial policy is simple. It is to guide the colonial territories to responsible self-government within the Commonwealth in conditions that ensure to the people concerned both a fair standard of living and freedom from oppression from any quarter.2
All the British political parties shared these views.
The end of the War in 1945 was therefore the signal for im- portant evolutionary change in the structure of the British Com- monwealth. India, Pakistan and Ceylon were granted independence and elected to remain within the Commonwealth, Burma demanded and secured complete independence. They were but the first of a number of British dependent territories to secure self-government. The announcement by the Governor of Hong Kong on 1 May 1946 therefore reflected the prevailing view which encouraged colonies to aim at sharing a partnership of free nations within the
British Commonwealth.
In June 1946, representative bodies, Chinese and non-Chinese, were invited in accordance with the May 1st announcement, to state their view on the question of 'the form which the revision of the constitution should take, and on some of the questions which would be involved if they favoured the establishment of a municipal council. At the same time those members of the public who felt that they were in a position to express the opinion and wishes of any part of the community were also invited to express their view': The interests of all sections of the community were to be considered and safeguarded. There was a wide response to this important
1 Quoted by J.S.Furnival, Colonial Policy and Practice, Cambridge 1948, p.315. Cmd. 7433, 1948 quoted in Sir Charles Jeffries, The Colonial Office, Oxford 1956, p. 38.
THE YOUNG PLAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL Reform
185
invitation in the form of representations to the Governor from private individuals and public bodies and discussion in the public press. These were considered by the Governor, in accordance with his instructions, and in a broadcast address to the people of the Colony on 26 August 1946, he gave an outline of his views, which became known as the 'Young' Plan.
From the comments he had received, the Governor said that the general trend of opinion in the Colony seemed to favour the establishment of a municipal council, and he outlined some tenta- tive proposals as a basis for further discussion. Briefly, he proposed that the council should control only the urban area and that two- thirds of its members should be elected in equal numbers by Chinese and non-Chinese voters respectively, and the remaining one-third, again in equal numbers, by Chinese and non-Chinese representative bodies. He indicated some of the problems that would have to be faced, such as the franchise, qualifications for a councillor, and the powers and functions of the Council. He held out the prospect that it would have complete control over its own municipal finances, which would enable it to pursue a genuine independent policy in the sphere of administration entrusted to it. In addition to the municipal council, the Young Plan proposed a reform of the Legislative Council by which the number of un- official members would be increased by one and the number of official members decreased by two. The reformed Legislative Council would therefore consist of seven official members and eight unofficial members, in addition to the Governor who, as president, would retain his original and casting votes and so hold the balance between the official and unofficial elements. To make the eight unofficial members more representative, it was proposed that four should be nominated by unofficial bodies, one each by the Justices of the Peace and Chamber of Commerce as before, and two by the new municipal council. The municipal reform scheme and that for the reform of the Legislative Council were therefore closely related. Parallel constitutional development was also envisaged for the New Territories which were administered independently.
The plan was well received and during September and October of that year further views were expressed by local people, public bodies and various communities on the proposed municipal council and on the broad question of constitutional reform.
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GOVERNMENT AND PEOPLE 1841-1962
Sir Mark Young sent his considered proposals to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in October 1946. He earmarked $1,500,000 in the 1947 budget towards the cost of setting up the municipal council1 but left the Colony on retirement on 17 May 1947 before
any further step
could be taken. In July 1947 an announce- ment was made simultaneously in the House of Commons and in Hong Kong, that the Secretary of State, had, subject to certain reservations, approved the proposed revision of the constitution embodied in the Young Plan.2
Once the general principles of the plan had been decided, its details remained to be worked out and embodied in bills to be placed before the Legislative Council. All through the discussion, it was clear that there was no intention on the part of the Colonial Office in London, nor of the local British authorities in Hong Kong, to impose reform on the Colony against its wishes. Further, and in the event this proved decisive, the intention was that that part of the constitutional reform plan which required legislation should be enacted by the existing Legislative Council, which should have an opportunity of giving its opinion on the plan as a whole. The views of the community had been desired and con- sidered, but it is quite clear that the British colonial authorities retained confidence in the traditional mode of assessing public opinion through the unofficial members of the Legislative Council. Progress was slow because a great deal of detail had to be worked out. The new Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham,3 referred to this in his address to the Legislative Council before the presenta- tion of the 1948 budget:
I believe that all of us were guilty in the beginning of an under- estimate of the amount of detailed work to be done before the muni- cipality could become a reality. The technical and legal framework which has to be laid is new in Hong Kong and it is morcover extremely complicated. In addition, much preparatory work has to be done, as it were, on the ground; voting wards have to be carefully delineated, voting registers compiled and the whole election machinery created.1
1 Hong Kong Hansard 1957, P. 51.
↑ Annual Report 1947, P. 2.
Administrative Service, H.K. 1922; Colonial Secretary, Bermuda, 1935-38; Sir Alexander William George Herder Grantham, G.C.M.G., Colonial Colonial Secretary, Jamaica, 1938-41; Chief Secretary, Nigeria, 1941-44: Governor, Fiji and High Commissioner for the Western Pacific 1945-47; Governor of Hong Kong 1947-57. K.C.M.G. 1945. (Who's Who, 1961)
4 Hong Kong Hansard 1948, p. 57.
1
THE YOUNG PLAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM
Almost two years elapsed before the plan was ready.
187
On 3 June 1949, the Government Gazette published three bills dealing with the municipal council: The Municipal Corporation Bill, The Municipal Electors Bill and the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Bill,1 and they laid down the scheme for a municipal council in great detail.
The proposed municipal council consisting of a mayor and councillors, was to administer only the urban area comprising the Islands of Hong Kong, Ap Lei Chau and Stonecutters, with Kowloon and New Kowloon. There were to be thirty councillors, of whom half were to represent the Chinese community and half the non-Chinese sections of the population. Two-thirds of the total council, that is twenty, were to be directly elected, and one- third nominated by various public and professional bodies. Mem- bership was open to qualified electors of either sex and was not restricted to persons of British nationality, but since the English language was to be the language of the council, members had to be able to speak, read and write that language; a residence qualification of ten years out of the previous fifteen was additionally demanded, except that special consideration was given to those who left the Colony because of the Japanese occupation. Elected and nominated members were to serve for three years and be eligible for further terms. The council was to have the right to elect the mayor and deputy mayor from among its members, both appointments being held for one year only. The mayor was to be paid such renumeration as the council thought fit.
The franchise was to be extended to all those of the age of 25 years or above, men and women alike, capable of reading and writing either English or Chinese. There was to be a residence qualification; for British subjects this was to be one year since reaching the age of 23; for persons of all other nationalities, it was to be six years' residence in the Colony out of the preceding ten, with the special qualification that a period of absence during the Japanese occupation could be counted as residence provided a voter could show that he was resident in the Colony for four years between 1936 and 1941, or for one year since August 1945. In addition only those with the above qualifications whose names
1 The Bills of Hong Kong for 1949, pp. 225-335, 336-358 and 359-374 respectively. Supplement No. 3 to the Hong Kong Government Gazette, 3 June 1949.
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were on the jury lists, or who were exempted by their occupation from jury service, or alternatively who held property of a certain annual value, could exercise the vote. Elections were to be held in the first week in March every three years and at other times as vacancies on the council occurred; at each election a voter had as many votes as there were councillors to be elected. All members of the council had to retire on 31 March
every three years.
With regard to the distribution of seats among the Chinese and non-Chinese communities, there were to be ten wards for the Chinese, six on the Island and four in Kowloon each returning one member to the council; the non-Chinese were grouped together in one ward having ten seats. The representation of the Portuguese and Indian communities in this non-Chinese electorate was con- trived by providing that, if a Portuguese and an Indian candidate did not receive enough votes respectively to bring them among the ten candidates at the head of the poll, then the Portuguese and Indian candidates who secured the highest number of votes cast for Portuguese and Indian candidates respectively, were to be declared elected, and displace from the ten persons at the head of the poll, the two obtaining the least number of votes.
Ten councillors were to be nominated by recognized unofficial bodies as follows: The Chinese Chamber of Commerce, 1 Chinese; the Registered Trade Unions, 2 Chinese; the University of Hong Kong, I Chinese; the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce 2 non-Chinese; the Kowloon Residents' Association, I non- Chinese; and the unofficial Justices of the Peace, 1 Chinese and I non-Chinese. The body responsible for electing the tenth (non- Chinese) member was left undetermined in the bill. The names of persons nominated by these bodies had to be published in advance, and objection on grounds of disability could be lodged by any elector. A candidate for the council was to be disqualified if he held an office of profit under the Crown or were financially inter- ested in a council contract, or had been convicted of felony in the previous ten years, or were guilty of corrupt practices as defined in one of the three bills, or were a member of an assembly or council of any foreign power, or were under 25 years of age.
The declared intention was that the municipal council should take under its control all the functions of the existing Urban Council plus the Fire Brigade, parks, gardens and recreation grounds, the licensing and control of places of amusement and the
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licensing of vehicles. On these subjects it had power to make its own bye-laws. At a later stage, it was to take over control of educa- tion, social welfare, town planning and other important services. The municipal council was to become the rating authority and to have its own funds from the rates, and also act as agent for the Colonial Government in the collection of certain revenue. The council was to have as officials, a municipal secretary, treasurer, health officer and engineer, and their deputies and staffs, but it was not to have its own police force.
The Young Plan was still-born. Before the municipal bills were published on 3 June, criticism from a very influential quarter made itself heard. The Hon. D. F. Landale, the senior unofficial member of the Legislative Council, in the course of the 1949 Budget debate objected to money being earmarked for the municipal council, and urged that reform of the Legislative Council should come first. He said:
There is I believe a strong body of opinion that does not favour this reform, and would rather see a larger and more representative Legislative Council working in conjunction with a larger and more representative Urban Council than through the cumbersome ma- chinery of the proposed Municipal Council which, of necessity, would overlap a lot of the functions of the Colonial Government.1 Sir Alexander Grantham replied in his summary of the budget debate that if this were so, then he hoped that the Hon. D. F. Landale and his colleagues would bring forward alternative pro- posals. He added
I can however assure this Council that it is not the intention to steam-roller through the Legislative Council the existing proposals and any alternative proposals that have the backing of the unofficial members of this Council will be forwarded to the Secretary of State with my recommendations. While I am on this subject I should just like to say that I welcome the quickening interest in the matter of constitutional reform. That contrasts very pleasingly with the apathy that was displayed when these proposals were first published in July 1947.2
The unofficial members accepted this invitation and at the meeting of the Legislative Council on 27 April 1949, Hon. D. F. Landale gave notice of the following resolutions which, after many meetings, the unofficial members had agreed upon, and which
'Hong Kong Hansard 1949, p. 91.
* Hong Kong Hansard 1949, p. 137.
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were to be moved after an interval of two months to allow for discussion.
Since the publication of the dispatch of the Rt. Hon. the Secretary of State for the Colonies dated 3 July 1947, in which he gave general approval subject to minor modifications to the recommendations submitted by Sir Mark Young and contained in his dispatch No. 145 of 22 October 1946, it has become increasingly evident that in the view of the general public of Hong Kong:
a. The proposals of Sir Mark Young involving the creation of a Municipal Council and a minor modification of the constitution of the Legislative Council are no longer considered to be the best means of giving to the inhabitants of the Colony a fuller and more responsible share in the management of their own affairs.
b. Sufficient consideration was not given to alternative methods of achieving this object.
c. The most effective means of achieving this object is a more fundamental modification of the constitution of the Legislative Council.
Therefore in order to make known to His Majesty's Government as soon as possible the present views of the Colony, it is hereby moved that for the purpose of affording the inhabitants of the Colony a fuller and more responsible share in the management of their own
affairs.
1. The present proposals for the establishment of a Municipal
Council be abandoned.
2. The constitution of the Legislative Council should be cons- tituted as follows:
A Council of 20 with an official membership of 9, including H. E. the Governor and an unofficial membership of 11 consisting partly of members elected by qualified residents of British nationality and partly of members nominated by the Governor. The Governor to have an original and casting vote and the usual reserve power.
3. After the constitution of the Legislative Council has been modified as above indicated, the new Legislative Council should consider whether and, if so to what extent, the constitution of the Urban Council should be modified with the view to securing for the Urban Council a greater measure of direct representation and an increase in its financial and administrative powers in municipal
affairs.1
The whole basis of the Young Plan was undermined by these resolutions which gave priority to the reform of the Legislative Council and left the reformed Council to decide on the nature of the reforms to be introduced in municipal affairs.
1 Hong Kong Hansard 1949, p. 150.
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The resolutions were brought up on 22 June 1949 in a slightly amended form by the late Sir Man Kam Lo1 in the absence of Mr Landale. It was now proposed that the Legislative Council should consist of 17 members instead of 20, by reducing the number of official members from nine to six. At the commencement of this decisive debate, the Governor announced that the officials would not vote or take part except to supply any information required.
The speeches of the unofficial members on that occasion2 make a valuable commentary on the problem of constitutional reform in Hong Kong. Sir Man Kam Lo dealt with the difficulty of estim- ating public opinion in the Colony and stated that the aim of the resolutions was to get the opinion of the inhabitants on whether the Young Plan should be abandoned, or as an alternative, whether the Legislative Council should be reconstituted along the lines of the resolutions he was proposing. He admitted that the views of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Kowloon Residents' Association and the Kowloon Chamber of Commerce were 'certainly not at one in regard to either of the points', and that the two Reform Clubs (see p. 204ff.) also disagreed. He doubted how far these public bodies represented the views of a substantial section of the community. He thought that on the whole the majority wanted the present proposals, but in any case he rightly claimed that the unofficial members were not absolved from giving their views. There were three questions on which opinions differed; they were, whether all members of the Legislative Council should be clected or not, the nature of the electorate, and thirdly, whether the Young Plan should be abandoned. On the last point, Sir Man Kam pointed out that the intention was not to abandon the idea of a municipal council but only that of its immediate creation. He pointed to the duplication and expense and argued that it would be more satisfactory if the Urban Council evolved in a more orderly way by gradually expanding its functions until it grew into a municipality. He allowed that the virtue of the Young Plan, which was conceived as an experimental prelude to more sub-
1 Sir Man Kam Lo (1893-1959). Knighted 1948. Educated in England. In 1915 passed the Solicitors' Final Examination taking the first place in the First Class Honours. Has served on many commissions and public committees. Member of the Legislative Council, 1935 to 1949. Member of the Executive Council from 1946 to his death in 1959. (Who Was Who 1951-60)
* Hong Kong Hansard 1949, pp. 188–204.
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stantial reform, would be lost if the more far-reaching proposals now being moved, were carried.
On the question of elections, Sir Man Kam Lo argued that since the British occupation, the fundamental conception was that the Government should concern itself with the welfare of the Colony as a whole without sectional or racial prejudice or distinctions. He thought no electorate could be devised to do justice to all sections and interests; the unofficial members of the Legislative Council represented the interests of the Colony as a whole and this remained the justification for the nomination of members. Accord- ing to the 1931 census the number of British subjects divided according to their racial origins was: Chinese, 61,604; Europeans, 6,636; Eurasians, 717; Portuguese, 1,089; Indian, 3,331; others 453; totalling 73,782, and he considered that probably the same proportions remained. He thought that the difficulty about the electorate lay in the lack of homogeneity; and though the announce- ment of 1 May 1946 promised a great measure of control over their own affairs to the inhabitants of the Colony and not to British subjects alone, nevertheless in his view any other than an electorate of British subjects would involve long argument and delay. He argued that there must be some incongruity even in this restricted electorate of 73,000 persons which could not claim to represent a community ten times as large, and observed, 'but to suggest that members elected by a fractional electorate and pledged to dis- charge the mandate of this fractional electorate can and will more adequately represent the Colony as a whole than nominated mem- bers is a proposition with which I profoundly disagree'. Hence he argued for the retention of a partly nominated element in the Legislative Council. But he thought that the realistic approach was to introduce a new elective element into the constitution of the Legislative Council, as a recognition of its fundamental basis and as a step in the right direction along its road of progress and evolution'. He considered communal electorates were undesirable but thought they might be inevitable to avoid a non-Chinese candidate strongly supported by non-Chinese voters being defeated by another non-Chinese candidate receiving the support of Chinese electors only. He summed up saying that it was the unanimous view of the unofficial members 'that whilst it is impracticable to devise a scheme of constitutional reform which will completely satisfy aspirations of all the inhabitants, their proposals represent a
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THE YOUNG PLAN OF CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM 193
fair and acceptable compromise'. To those who demanded that all the members should be elected, he replied that it was better to get substantial advance by agreement than to stand out for some yet unattainable ideal.
The remaining speakers emphasized the difficulty of ascertaining the wishes of the community in the matter of constitutional reform and many doubted if any demand for reform existed at all. The Hon. M. M. Watson, who seconded the motion, said he was quite unable to find any definite trend of opinion one way or the other on the reforms which had been suggested, and said, 'However there seems to me to be a somewhat surprising lack of interest in the subject amongst the population generally which is perhaps due to the pressure of more absorbing events'. The Hon. (later Sir) Chau Tsun-nin1 said 'It is by no means easy
to assess with accuracy the public feeling on such an important matter'. One speaker went so far as to state 'I can see no evidence over the last six weeks since this motion was first tabled that the large majority of residents of long standing in this colony want any reform at all', and he doubted if there would have been any demand for reform had it not been for the initiative taken by the British Government. The Hon. M. M. Watson put the view that if the municipal council had elected members and the Legislative Council not, there might be difficulties between the two councils, and the general opinion of the unofficial members was that it was safest and more in accord with constitutional precedent to begin with the Legislative Council rather than to embark on the experiment of a new municipal council which would be expensive, complicated and partly overlapping. There was little argument against a municipal council; the argument was that there should be delay and that the Legislative Council should be reformed first as befit- ting its position of authority in the community. One member, Dr. The Hon. (later Sir) Chau Sik-nin, alone argued against
1 Sir Tsun-nin Chau. C.B.E., 1938, knighted 1956. Member of the Legislative Council, 1931-53, and senior unofficial member 1950-53; Member of the Executive Council, 1946 to 1959 and Senior Unofficial member 1948-59. (Who's Who 1961)
* Sir Sik-nin Chau. Kt. 1960, C.B.E. 1950. Chairman, Federation of Hong Kong Industries, United College of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chinese Bank Ltd., etc. Director of numerous companies. Hong Kong, London and Vienna Univer- sities. Member of the Urban Council 1936-41. Member of Legislative Council 1946-59 and senior unofficial member 1953-59; member of the Executive Council since 1948 and senior unofficial member since 1960. Permanent Director of Tung
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restricting the vote to British subjects. The motion was carried by the unanimous vote of the unofficial members,1 and Sir Alexander Grantham undertook to send the views with his comments to the Secretary of State, 'who must give the final decision'. The Young Plan was therefore temporarily in abeyance putting the basis of constitutional reform once more in the melting pot.
The issues were again discussed in the press and other proposals were made. In 1949 two organizations demanding reform came into existence, the Reform Club and the Chinese Reform Associa- tion, which helped to canalize some sides of public opinion.
A Chinese petition signed by representatives of 142 Chinese organizations among whom were the Chinese Manufacturers' Union, the Kowloon Chamber of Commerce, the Chinese Chamber of Commerce, the Hong Kong Chinese Reform Association, and Chinese Trade Unions, altogether representing a membership of 141,800 Chinese, was presented to the Governor on 18 July 1949 requesting more thorough-going reform. It asked for an enlarged Legislative Council to be set up as an interim measure, composed of eleven unofficial members, and such official members as the Governor chose provided that they were in a minority of at least two; it urged that the system of nomination be discontinued in favour of all unofficial members being elected, and that of the eleven, six should be Chinese, irrespective of nationality. It expressed the view that the electoral roll for the interim Legislative Council 'might well be based on the tax-payers' list without discrimination as to race and nationality, since the Chinese people cannot be held to be aliens and have for traditional and geographical reasons long regarded themselves as being indigenous to Hong Kong... '. The petitioners also asked that the Government's pledge to establish the municipal council based on the Young Plan, should be implemented before 1 May 1950, that all 30 members of the council should be elected, that nomination of some members by designated bodies should be abandoned, and that the qualification for voting should be the same for Chinese and
Wah Hospital Advisory Board, Chairman of Hong Kong Anti-Tuberculosis President or Vice-President of numerous associations. (Who's Who 1961)
In 1949 there were seven unofficial members, three Chinese, three British Hon.
and one Portuguese.
2 South China Morning Post, 19 July 1949.
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195
non-Chinese alike with no racial, national, residential or any other discrimination between the two sections of the community. They requested that a commission should be appointed by the Governor to improve upon the draft of the Municipal Council Ordinance along the lines suggested. The proposal of the unofficial members of the Legislative Council to reform the Council was supported but their proposal to delay the setting up of the municipal council was deplored.
On 8 March 19501 Sir Alexander Grantham referred in the Legislative Council to the many societies and other bodies which had sent him their views on constitutional reform, or had published them. He stated that he had sent all these opinions with his own comments to the Secretary of State; they were being studied, but the General Election of 1950 and events in China and Korea had caused some delay. In July 1952, Sir Alexander went to the United Kingdom and the question of constitutional reform was discussed at the Colonial Office. On 20 October 1952 the Secretary of State, Mr Oliver Lyttelton, announced in the Commons that the numbers of elected representatives on the Urban Council would be increased from two to four, but that the time was inopportune for other constitutional changes of a major character. This view was repeated by the Governor when he referred to the Secretary of State's announcement in addressing the Legislative Council on 22 October. He also added 'I should like to take this opportunity of supple- menting that statement by an assurance that I am at all times ready to consider further proposals for constitutional change provided they are not of a major character'."
Hong Kong Hansard 1950, p. 41. 2 Hong Kong Hansard 1952, p. 252.
CHAPTER XII
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE POST-WAR YEARS, 1945-62
The Transfiguration of Hong Kong Society
IN his statement in the House of Commons on 20 October 1952 sanctioning minor constitutional changes only, the Secretary of State for the Colonies explained briefly and without further elucida- tion that after consultation with the Governor, he had decided that the time was inopportune for other constitutional changes of a major character. There was no indication that the British Govern- ment had altered its mind about the desirability of reform in principle; the argument was that the time, 1952, was inopportune. The explanation must be sought in the general situation in the Far East, which had undergone a radical transformation in the six years between 1946, when the promise of a greater degree of self- government was given, and 1952, when the decision against major changes was announced.
Up to 1949 the Hong Kong Government maintained close and friendly relations with the Nationalist Government of China as the recognized government of that country, e.g. it assisted that Government in its attempt to introduce and stabilize the gold yüan currency, and in January 1948 the British Government allowed the Chinese Maritime Customs to operate in British waters and maintain collecting stations in Hong Kong and Kowloon, the agreement being embodied in a local ordinance of October 1948. In 1949 the situation in the Far East was completely changed by the setting up of the Chinese People's Republic in Peking on 1 October 1949. On 15 October Canton fell and the next day Chinese Communist forces appeared on the Hong Kong border.
The effect of the Chinese communist success on Hong Kong was profound. Trade with the mainland suffered. More important, political refugees particularly from Shanghai, poured into Hong Kong and there was also a mass exodus of Cantonese from Kwang- tung province coming, as they have always done, to seek greater security and a higher standard of life in the Colony, where most had relatives to assist them in settling down. This Cantonese invasion of Hong Kong was no unusual phenomenon, and the
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 1945-62
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T'ai P'ing Rebellion, the Chinese Revolution of 1911 and the Japanese attack on Canton in 1938 had all brought a flood of refu- gees. The chief difference on this occasion was the size of the flood.
In 1945, on the resumption of British control, the population was estimated at 'about 500,000'.1 After the liberation, people began to return at a rate approaching 100,000 a month until by the end of 1946, the pre-war figure of 1,600,000 was probably reached. From the beginning of 1949 to the spring of 1950, that is during the period of the establishment of the Chinese People's Republic, it is estimated that 776,000 refugees crowded into the Colony and that by 1950 the population had risen to 2,360,000.2 The Colony was faced with the problem of resettling these new- comers who strained public services and material resources, created difficulties in housing, public hygiene and water-supply, and subjected the Colony to the continual hazard of fire by the mush- rooming of their squatters' shacks. They brought a dangerous factionalism3 into the life of the Colony and created special problems such as preventing clashes between refugees and communist sympathizers; maintaining order on their respective national days and keeping the schools free from the struggle between the rival parties for control of education for propagandist purposes.
In February 1950, the British Government recognized the Chinese People's Republic but relations between Britain and China did not become normal and there were incidents over shipping in neighbouring waters and over the disposal of Chinese Nationalist Government property which had sought refuge in the Colony.
In 1950 hostilities in Korea began by the attack of North Korean communist forces on South Korea, and when the United Nations intervened, Hong Kong became the scene of more military activity. In December 1950, the United States placed an embargo on trade with China, in which Hong Kong was included, and the Colony was seriously affected because of its close economic links with the mainland of China. In May 1951, the embargo was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The result was that at the very time that the Colony was faced with the towering problem of absorbing three-quarters of a million refugees, its ability to do so was weakened by the necessity of extending controls over a wide
1 Annual Report 1952, p. 27. Annual Report 1951, p. 23. 3 Annual Report 1949, p. 2.
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range of commodities and introducing import licensing of controlled goods.1 Hong Kong which lived by unrestricted trade and close economic relations with the mainland, had to turn to manufactures and in this it was helped by imperial preferences in the United Kingdom market. In 1952 the United States allowed the import of goods manufactured or processed in the Colony, and so helped to break down the identification of the Colony with China.
In all these circumstances, it was indeed difficult to go on with the discussion of the Colony's constitutional reforms. Any wide enfranchisement of the Chinese inhabitants might well have led to bitter factional disputes and it was clearly unrealistic to talk about the representation of communities when one person in three was a refugee.
There can be no doubt of the difficulty of any far-reaching and important social and constitutional experiment under these circumstances and there can be no surprise that the time was judged to be 'inopportune'. But this does not mean that nothing was attempted.
Post-war Constitutional Development, 1946-62
The Executive Council was reconstituted in May 1946 with a membership of eleven, seven official and four unofficial; the former included five ex officio members, together with the Director of Medical and Health Services who resumed the seat to which he had been appointed in 1939, and Hon. T. M. Hazlerigg appointed provisionally for one year. 3 The four unofficial members comprised two Chinese and two Europeans. In 1948 the Executive Council was increased to twelve, six official and six unofficial members with the Governor himself holding the balance. This was done by adding the Commissioner of Labour to the already existing five ex officio
1 Annual Report 1951, p. 9.
2 The Senior Military Officer, Colonial Secretary, Attorney-General, Secre- tary for Chinese Affairs and Financial Secretary.
T. M. Hazlerigg, who first occupied his scat temporarily for the Director of Medical and Health Services on leave. He had retired from the Hong Kong Government service in 1937 and returned in 1945 as the Political Adviser to the Military Administration, the post being later renamed Special Adviser.
They were Hon. (later Sir) Arthur Morse, of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, D. F. Landale of Jardine, Matheson & Co., Sir Tsun-nin Chau, a member of the Legislative Council since 1932, and Sir Man Kam Lo, a member of the Legislative Council since 1936.
9. Refugees on the Border, May 1962.
By courtesy of the Hong Kong Government Information Services.
な
Facing page 198
10. Old Colonial Secretariat, demolished in 1954.
--
#777777
11. Central Government Offices, East Wing, 1963. The end of the West Wing can be seen on the left. By courtesy of the Hong Kong Government
Information Services.
Facing page 199
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members, and adding two unofficial members,1 one European and one Chinese to the existing four. The next year, one European member was replaced by a leading British barrister of Portuguese origin and this balance among the unofficial members has since remained unchanged. The numerical equality between the official and unofficial elements manifested the Government's intention that the Governor should be advised by a body in which the official vote was not the determining factor.
The Legislative Council was reborn on 1 May 1946 with nine official and seven unofficial members. The former were the five ex officio members of the Executive Council who were automatically members of the Legislative Council, and the Director of Medical and Health Services, plus three others who were appointed provi- sionally only, namely, Hon. T. M. Hazlerigg, the Government's Special Adviser, the Chairman of the Urban Council and the Director of Public Works. Six of the seven unofficial members one of whom was nominated by the Chamber of Commerce, were given provisional appointments on 18 May 1946, and a seventh was elected by the unofficial Justices of the Peace in the following October; they comprised three Chinese, three British and one Portuguese. In 1947 Hazlerigg resigned leaving eight official and seven unofficial members.
In 1951 the Legislative Council was increased from fifteen to seventeen members, by the addition of the Director of Education on the official side and of a fourth Chinese on the unofficial side. In 1953, the unofficial Justices elected a member of the local Indian community, thus reducing the European element. There were then four Chinese, one European and one Portuguese as nominated members and one European and one Indian as elected members. In 1958, the Justices nominated a European3 in place of the Indian member, but the latter was nominated by the Governor to a seat in 1959 and in the same year the Portuguese member was replaced by a Chinese. There has been no change in this balance among the unofficials, viz. five Chinese, two British and one Indian, and no
1 Hon. Dr D. J. Sloss, Vice-Chancellor of the University, and Sir Sik-nin Chau.
* Hon. Leo D'Almada e Castro, Q.C.
Hon. H. D. M. Barton, of Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd. With the departure of D. F. Landale in 1949, the Legislative Council was again without a member of the 'Princely Hong' until Mr Barton's appointment in 1958, but it continued to supply a member of the Executive Council until 1956.
"ELES ESPANY
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material change in the general structure of the Legislative Council, up to 1962.1
A joint delegation of members of the Reform Club and Civic Association went to London in August 1960, but their interviews with Colonial Office officials failed to convince the Secretary of State of the desirability of substantial constitutional change. Lord Perth, Minister of State for Colonial Affairs visited the Colony, and in a statement, issued on his departure on 29 October 1960, he confirmed that
'Her Majesty's Government consider it undesirable that there should be any radical or major change in the present constitutional position in Hong Kong', adding that 'This does not, however, preclude the possibility of minor modifications, within the framework of existing principles, in the composition of the Legislative Council
or the Urban Council'.2
Perhaps the most significant constitutional development which has been introduced since the war has been the granting to the Colony of a wide measure of financial autonomy. This was an- nounced by the Governor, Sir Robert Black,3 in the course of his annual address to the Legislative Council on 6 March 1958.
Before concluding, I have to report a decision recently taken by the Secretary of State. He has approved a considerable relaxation in the financial control which he exercises over Hong Kong. In 1948 the Colony was released from Treasury control and given a large measure of autonomy over its own finances. The control which the Secretary of State still retained at that time was that his approval was required for the annual Estimates, for supplementary provisions exceeding $1 million in the case of capital expenditure and $4 million in the case of recurrent expenditure, and for the issue of any loan and for any expenditure involving important points of principle. The Secretary of State has now informed me that, in view of the good standing, financial and administrative, of the Colony, he will further relax his control and will no longer require the Estimates to be
unofficial members and 12 officials plus the Governor as President. Since the 1 On 12 June 1964, the membership of the Council was increased to 13 Governor has a casting vote in addition to an original vote, the official view can still be made to prevail if required.
2 South China Morning Post, 30 October 1960.
Sir Robert Brown Black, K.C.M.G., O.B.E. Colonial Administrative Service, Malaya, 1930; Assistant Colonial Secretary, Trinidad, 1939; Secretary; Malaya, Foreign Exchange Control, 1940; Prisoner-of-war, Japan, 1942-45; Deputy Chief Secretary, North Borneo, 1946; Colonial Secretary, Hong Kong, 1952; Governor of Singapore, 1955; Governor of Hong Kong, 1958-1964. (Who's Who 1964)
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 1945-62
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submitted for his approval; nor will be require supplementary provisions to be authorized by him. On the other hand, he wishes to extend the principle of demi-official consultation which is already in use, and I have agreed that the Financial Secretary will keep the Finance Department of the Colonial Office regularly and fully in- formed about this Government's financial policy and about the way that this policy works out in practice. The Financial Secretary will take account of the views of the financial advisers of the Secretary of State in advising this Government on policy.
This is a very important and considerable extension of our financial independence, and of course it brings with it its responsibilities; but I am confident that honourable Members will gladly share in these responsibilities, particularly in the sphere of examination of the Government's proposals for expenditure in Appropriation Bills, so as to ensure that we employ the Colony's resources in the best possible manner for its development and for the benefit of its people.1 The control of the Secretary of State is now reserved only in the cases of raising loans and of financial matters involving important points of principle. The Finance Committee of the Legislative Council, on which the unofficial members have a majority, has accordingly become a more influential body, although it will be realized that under the ultimate constitutional authority of the Letters Patent, the Secretary of State through the powers of disallowance and legislation by the Crown, could still if he chose, exercise complete control. In normal circumstances such inter- vention by the Home Government must be regarded as only a theoretical possibility.
The Urban Council was resuscitated in May 1946 with five official members, viz. the chairman of the Council, the Director of Medical and Health Services, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the Director of Public Works and the Commissioner of Police, all ex officio and six unofficial members appointed by the Governor for one year from 25 May 1946. Of these latter, three were Chinese, one Indian and two European. In 1947 there were three Chinese, one Indian, one Portuguese and one British, and the Council retained this balance in its unofficial membership until 1952. The Chairman of the Urban Council assumed the concurrent title Director of Urban Services in 1953 at the head of an Urban Services Department. Amongst the ex officio members, the Social Welfare Officer replaced the Commissioner of Police in 1953, and the
1
Hong Kong Hansard 1958, p. 46.
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following year, 1954, the Commissioner for Resettlement was added on a temporary basis making six officials holding their seats ex officio; in 1955 the Deputy Director of Health Services who had acted as vice-chairman was renamed Assistant Director of Health Services.
The question of resuming popular elections to seats on the Urban Council was raised at a meeting of the Legislative Council on 9 April 1952, by Sir Tsun-nin Chau. He asked if, in view of the delay in reconstituting the Legislative Council and the postpone- ment of the modification of the Urban Council, the Government would consider holding elections under the Urban Council Ordinance. In reply the Colonial Secretary said that arrangements would be made for the election of two additional members to the Urban Council. Elections were accordingly held on 30 May 1952, for the first time since 1941. The two elected members held their seats for one year only.
In September 1952, the unofficial members of the Urban Coun- cil made proposals which included increasing the number of elected members to four, enlarging the electorate, and improving the voting arrangements. These suggestions were approved by the Secretary of State, and as a result, when he made his statement in the Commons on 20 October 1952, deferring major constitutional change, he announced at the same time that the number of elected representatives would be increased from two to four.
The Hong Kong Government carried the proposals into effect in two Ordinances, passed in March and December 1953. The first increased the number of elected members of the Urban Council from two to four, increased their term from one to two years, one half retiring in alternate years, and similarly increased the term of the nominated members to two years. The second ordinance enfranchised, subject to certain qualifications, teachers, those assessed for salaries or personal tax, civil servants and the auxiliary defence services. The roll of electors was increased from 10,798 to an estimated 18,500.
These ordinances did not introduce any new principle, and their main and probably intended effect was to soften the blow caused by the decision to postpone all major constitutional change. The importance of the Urban Council was enhanced in 1956 by the addition of six unofficial members, two nominated and four elected, making altogether eight nominated and eight elected unofficial members which, with the six officials, made up a Council of 22
2
}
1
{
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 1945-62
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members. This change was initiated by the Council itself, in a debate which took place on 27 September 1955.1
The official members, on that occasion, as on a similar occasion in the Legislative Council, refrained from speaking and voting. The initiative came from the nominated side of the unofficials, though all agreed that an increase in the size of the Council was essential in order to lighten the amount of committee work which was then bearing heavily on the members. The mover argued that since the electorate was less than 20,000, some nominated members should remain, that reform should be gradual, and that the increase should be limited to the six proposed, making the elected and nominated members equal in number. He also asked the elected members to express their views on the possibility of conducting the elections through wards. The elected members accepted the motion though protesting that it fell short of that extension of the electorate and of the electoral principle generally that they had advocated. They rejected the ward system as a basis of the elections.
I
2
The Government accepted the change, and the six additional members were sanctioned by the Urban Council (Amendment) Ordinance, No. 1 of 1956. Elected members were normally to hold their seats for four years, instead of two, and transitional arrange- ments were devised3 so that four members were to be elected every two years, and similarly four nominated members were to be appointed every two years in those years when elections were not held, thus arranging for the alternate filling of four elected and four nominated unofficial members each year.
Another important change was also then made. By the Urban Council Ordinance of 1955 three of the appointed members had to be of Chinese origin. This provision was omitted from the 1956 Ordinance, and the Colonial Secretary, speaking on the first reading explained that, 'It is considered that statutory provisions as to a member's race are inappropriate and that the public interest would
South China Morning Post, 28 September 1955. In order to comply with the Urban Council Ordinance which does not give the Council power to discuss its own constitution, the Council had to resolve itself into committee for the
purpose of the debate.
2
Hong Kong Hansard 1956, p. 30.
Those members clected in 1954 were to hold office until 31 March 1956 and those elected in 1955, 31 March 1957. In March 1956, the election was to be for six members, four with the greatest number of votes were to hold their
seats until 31 March 1959, and the remaining two until 31 March 1957-
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be in no way damaged if Your Excellency were to be left with complete discretion as to the race of the appointed members'.
The discussion of constitutional changes and the reintroduction. of Urban Council elections brought into existence political associa- tions, the chief of which were the Reform Club and the Civic Association.
The Reform Club of Hong Kong was founded in 1949 by a group of British and Chinese professional people to urge a pro- gramme of constitutional reform. Among its principal objects, as stated in its annual report for 1952-53, were: to assist in creating a healthy public opinion; to stimulate interest in public affairs by constructive criticism; to bring about an improvement in the machinery of government; to devise means of closer contact between Government and citizen; to remodel the Legislature with due regard to the existing necessity for a Government majority; to foster an effective opposition in the Legislature; and to assist the Legislature by helping to keep it fully informed of public opinion on all aspects of current problems.
The Reform Club outlined its proposals for constitutional reform in a Petition to the Governor presented in June 1949. Briefly, it supported the demand of the unofficial members of the Legislative Council for an unofficial majority, in the ratio of 11 to 9, the eleven unofficials were to be five British, one Portuguese, and five Chinese, all of British nationality; three were to be nomin- ated by the Governor and eight elected by a joint roll of British subjects and Hong Kong citizens. The latter had to possess a residence qualification, to sign a declaration to uphold the interests of the Colony and be willing to be conscripted in its service to safeguard its security. After an interim period of 12 to 18 months, all the unofficial members were to be clected. The Reform Club also wanted a wholly elected municipal council instead of the partly elected one suggested under the Young Plan. In a more moderately worded petition to the Queen presented in October 1953, it demanded the addition of two unofficial members elected by the same electorate as that for the Urban Council. With the Young Plan in abeyance the Reform Club concentrated on the Urban Council elections when these were re-established in 1952, with the proviso that, 'The Reform Club will of course contest these elections but it must be stressed that no real constitutional
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 1945-62
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advancement can be expected until there are reforms in the Legislature and the elections to the Legislative Council'.1
The Chinese Reform Club was set up at the same time with a similar programme, but as the Reform Club, being non-racial, embraced the Chinese, separate advocacy of similar reform interests was unnecessary; in addition its external affiliations prejudiced its appeal as a local party.
The Hong Kong Civic Association was founded in 1955 and its objectives as stated in its Constitution were: to promote the economic social cultural and political welfare of the people of Hong Kong; to encourage industrial, commercial, and agricultural development; also housing education medical and health services; to help the underprivileged; to encourage greater interest in public affairs; and to promote closer understanding between the govern- ment and the public. It did not advocate any major change in the existing form of government and was of the opinion that the vast majority of the electorate were not in favour of any drastic con- stitutional reform; but it urged that civic interest should be en- couraged and guided, and that expansion of the electoral franchise should be made gradually as civic education progressed. But it took warning from other colonies 'whose drastic constitutional reforms have been introduced contrary to the best interests of the people concerned and often with serious consequences'.
On 30 January 1961, the Reform Club and Civic Association. joined forces for the purpose of contesting the Urban Council elections with a common platform based on the joint memorandum on constitutional reform presented by their combined delegation to the Colonial Office in August 1960. The agreement, which was to run for four years unless mutually varied, allowed each to maintain its separate identity and to work for parity in elected members. The memorandum demanded eight additional elected members to the Urban Council and a widening of the Council's responsibilities; the addition of eight elected seats to the Legislative Council, possibly in two stages; the inclusion by the Governor, of a number of elected members of the Legislative Council in the Executive Council; and it asked that the existing electorate should be enlarged not by a complete re-organization, but by adding new
'Reform Club of Hong Kong, Annual Report 1951–52.
* See also Hong Kong Civic Association Annual Report for 1957.
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categories of voters such as nurses, property taxpayers and business profit taxpayers.1
In the absence of any change in the composition of the Legisla- tive Council, interest tended to be concentrated on the Urban Council elections. The first election, that of 1952, for two seats, was dominated by the Reform Club; after a vigorous campaign, it was successful in getting one of its candidates returned at the head of the poll, the other seat being secured by a candidate nominated by the Kowloon Residents' Association. There were nine candidates, but the six of them, who were independent of any organization, all fared badly. Only 3,368 persons voted out of a total of 9,704 on the register; and the most successful candidate secured only 30% of the vote and only 8% of the electorate. In 1953, there were eight candidates for four seats, which were secured by the four Reform Club candidates by large majorities. Again the number voting was small, only 2,536 out of 10,798 voters, and led to the comment: "The poor display of civic spirit is thus either a deplorable exhibition of apathy or a stupid refusal to take a little trouble--and in any case is a grave reflection upon the population's desire for and title to any degree of self-government'.3
5
2
In 1954 there were five candidates for only two seats and the Reform Club again secured both against independent opponents in an election in which 4,957 people voted out of a total electoral roll of 13,700. In the 1955 election, at which only 1,914 voters recorded their votes, the Reform Club was again successful in securing the two available seats against the opposition of a single independent candidate. In 1956 there were six vacant seats; the Civic Association entered the lists against the Reform Club and no independent candidate came forward. The Reform Club secured the first four places and the Civic Association the remaining two. The vote was 6,048 out of a total of 14,682,° In 1957 the two organizations again monopolized the elections and on this occasion the success of the Reform Club was checked; it gained one seat and its opponents three, with 6,916 people casting their votes out
1 South China Morning Post, 31 January 1961.
* Hong Kong Hansard 1953, P. 337.
3 South China Morning Post, 22 May 1953.
* ibid., 24 March 1954.
ibid., 31 March 1955.
G ibid., 8 March 1956.
CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 1945-62
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of 19,305.1 In the 1959 elections three Reform Club and one Civic Association candidates were successful in a poll of 7,236 out of a total roll of 23,584,2 or 33% of the electorate. In January 1961, the Reform Club and Civic Association formed a coalition and jointly nominated four candidates for the 1961 elections, and since no other candidates appeared, no elections took place.
This was repeated in 1962. By these developments, the Chinese members have secured half the seats on the Urban Council; in 1962 there were two European and six Chinese elected members, three European and five Chinese nominated members, and six ex officio members, five European and one Chinese.
The elections have had the advantage of enabling some residents to undertake public administrative work who would not otherwise have that opportunity. To justify their election the elected members have to be active and exert pressure; they tend to be progressive, challenging, responsible and constructive. The electorate is limited to English speaking people, and is comparatively small. The compilation of the electoral register for Urban Council elections is the responsibility of the Commissioner of Registration of Persons. According to the register of electors given in the Annual Report of the Commissioner for the year 1961-62, dated 18 June 1962, 26,039 persons were entitled to vote, a little over 0.7% of the total population, 22,621 in Hong Kong (Victoria) and 6,599 in Kowloon. They consisted of 15,330 jurors, 2,131 exempted from jury service, 6,599 teachers, 47 taxpayers and 1,932 members of the Defence Force and Auxiliary Services. The elected members therefore cannot claim to represent the people but only some of the people, and probably the influential and intelligent section of it. The interests of the mass of the Chinese-speaking people are still the responsibility of the nominated unofficial members.
Post-war conditions also called for administrative changes in the New Territories. Under Sir Henry Blake's arrangements of 1899, each village or group of villages had its village elders to assist and advise the British officials, but they had declined in status and usefulness. There was no clearly defined way of electing them and they 'were often self-appointed persons who happened to be the most substantial or vociferous individuals of their village or district. Age which is revered in China, counted for a good deal'. The
1 ibid., 9 March 1957
2 ibid., 4 March 1959.208
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Japanese occupation brought changes, and bitter dispute between those who would and those who would not collaborate. Many fled to the interior and returned after the war to find it difficult to resume their position of influence in the village.
A rough-and-ready system of representation was devised where- by the heads of families of the old-established New Territories villages nominated or elected village representatives at the rate of one for every fifty families, with a minimum of one and a maximum of three for each village. In many cases village representatives were not formally elected and when, due to death or resignation, a vacancy occurred, representatives were appointed on the recom- mendation of a letter signed by the heads of the majority of families. Elections were first held in some districts in 1946, and by the end of that year the system of village representatives had been accepted over the larger part of the New Territories. The next step was the setting up of rural committees composed of, or elected by, village representatives in the twenty-eight1 sub- districts into which the New Territories were divided for the pur- pose. This development took time and even by 1957, only 24 had been formed. The committees had no statutory existence or power, whatever authority they exercised was by delegation from the District Commissioner; but they helped in the administration of the territories by being the natural organ of consultation between the officials and the people; they assisted in the settlement of village and-what often amounted to the same thing-clan disputes.
The Heung Yee Kuk was recognized by the Government as reasonably representative of responsible opinion in the New Territories, but in the spring of 1957 it made certain changes in its constitution which gave rise to controversy among its members. The result was that many of them resigned, and 21 chairmen of Rural Committees and 18 other prominent local citizens put for- ward alternative proposals. The main issue was whether member- ship of the Heung Yee Kuk should continue to be based on the Rural Committees or have a more popular structure. Efforts to reach a compromise failed, and the Government, which did not accept the changes made, withdrew recognition from the Heung Yee Kuk, on the ground that it was no longer representative of