6. In the adjustment and disposal of the Colonial Revenue it might be supposed that the Unofficial Representatives of the tax-payers would be allowed a potential voice, and in form this has been conceded by the Government. But only in form, for in the Finance Committee, as well as in the Legislative Council, the Unofficial Members are in a minority, and can therefore be out-voted if any real difference of opinion arises.
7. Legislative Enactments are nearly always drafted by the Attorney General, are frequently forwarded before publication in the Colony or to the Council for the approval of the Secretary of State, and when sanctioned are introduced into the Legislative Council, read a first, second, and third time, and passed by the votes of the Official Members, acting in obedience to instructions, irrespective of their personal views or private opinions.
The Legislation so prepared and passed emanates in some cases from persons whose short experience of and want of actual touch with the Colony's needs, does not qualify them to fully appreciate the measures best suited to the requirements of the Community.
8. Those who have the knowledge and experience are naturally the Unofficial Members, who have been elected and appointed as possessing these very qualifications; who have passed large portions of their lives in the Colony, and who either have permanent personal interests in it, or hold prominent positions of trust which connect them most closely with its affairs, and are therefore the more likely to have been required to carefully study its real needs, and to live thoroughly acquainted themselves with the methods by which these are best to be met. On the other hand the Offices occupied by the Official Members are only stepping stones in an official career; the Occupants may be resident for a longer or a shorter period in the Colony, and for them to form an opinion on any question which arises, different from that decided upon by the Government in Executive Council, is to risk a conflict with the Governor, and they are therefore compelled to vote on occasions contrary to their convictions.
9. Your Petitioners humbly represent that to Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius, British Honduras, and other Crown Colonies, more liberal forms of Government than those enjoyed by your Petitioners have been given: Unofficial seats in the Executive Council; Unofficial majorities in the Legislative Council; power of election of Members of Council; and more power and influence in the management of purely local affairs: in none of these Colonies are the Commercial and Industrial interests of the same magnitude or importance as those of Hongkong. Your Petitioners, therefore, pray your Honourable House to grant them the same or similar privileges.
10. Your Petitioners fully recognise that in a Colony so peculiarly situated on the borders of a great Oriental Empire, and with a population largely composed of aliens whose traditional and family interests and racial sympathies largely remain in that neighboring Empire, special legislation and guardianship are required. Nor are they less alive to the Imperial position of a Colony which is at once a frontier Fortress and a Naval Depôt, the headquarters of Her Majesty's Fleet, and the base for Naval and Military operations in these Far Eastern waters; and they are not so unpractical as to expect that unrestricted power should be given to any local Legislature, or that the Queen's Government could ever give up the paramount control of this important Dependency. All your Petitioners claim is the common right of Englishmen to manage their local affairs, and control the Expenditure of the Colony, where Imperial considerations are not involved.
11. At present your Petitioners are subject to Legislation issuing from the Imperial Parliament, and all local legislation must be subsidiary to it. Her Majesty the Queen in Council has full and complete power and authority to make laws for the Island, and local laws must be approved and assented to by the Governor in the name of the Queen, and are subject to disallowance by Her Majesty on the recommendation of Her Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.
12. Your Petitioners recognise the necessity and propriety of the existence of these checks and safeguards against the abuse of any power and authority exercised by any local Legislature, and cheerfully acquiesce in their continuance and effective exercise, but respectfully submit that, subject to these checks and safeguards, they ought to be allowed the free election of Representatives of British Nationality in the Legislative Council of the Colony; a majority in the Council of such elected Representatives; perfect freedom of debate for the Official Members, with power to vote according to their conscientious convictions without being called to account or endangered in their positions by their votes; complete control in the Council over local expenditure; management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in questions of an Imperial character.
Your Petitioners therefore most humbly pray your Honourable House to move Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen to amend by Order in Council the constitution of this Crown Colony, and to grant to your Petitioners, and to the inhabitants of Hongkong all time to come the rights and privileges hereinbefore mentioned.