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Enclosun No 1 to Confidential Disputes of 18h December 1915
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The Daily Press.
HORGING, DECEMBER 17TH, 1916.
THE HON.
MR. POLLOCK'S QUESTIONS.
It is no exaggeration to say that the com mercjaj · "¿ommunity in Hongkong will swait with eager expectancy the replies to the series of questions of which the Hon. Mr. POLLOCK, K,C., gays notice at yesterday afternoon's meeting of the Legislative Council, for those questions strike at the very root of the existing system of government in the Colony. At the risk of being misunderstood by those! who do not know him well enough pro- perly to appreciate his motives, Mr. POLLOCK has made the vacancy that exist in the Executive Council the starting- off point for his attack. In asking what recommendation, if any, has been suh mited to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in regard to the appointment of the late Mr. HEWETT's successor, he draws attention to his own claims and inquir whether any reference has been made to them in the dispatch. That his object is not self-aggrandisement but a desire to ascertain the principle upon which!
are made is shown such nominations
by the questions which follow, asking whether the Government is prepared to recommend that in future all the unofficial members of the Executive and Legislative Councils shall be elected and their num sher increased. It will be interesting to see what justifestion, if any, will be attempt- ed of the existing system, which dates froze time when Ministers in England knew but little of the Colonies and cared legs, It was Lord PALMERSTON if we remember rightly, who said that he "never knew The where the beastly things were." chief desire of Ministers in those days was to be left untroubled by the affairs of distant possessions, which they regard- ed as so many mill-stones hung round the neck of the mother country, and it was in this spirit that the Constitution of this Colony was conceived. To the men sure of local autonomy that was accorded no objection has ever been raised; indeed, in the case of Hongkong it was inevitable in days when the submarine cable was unknown and the voyage to England had to be made vid the Cape and occupied six months. The exclusion of the public froĽ any affective participation in the conduct
of their affairs, however, has been a griev ance from the outset. Siure, Hongkong was created a Crown Colony there have been graat changes not merely in the means of communication but also in the attitude of the Imperial authorities to wards the Overseas Dominions of the Crown and in our ideals of government. Bureaucracy no longer holds the honoured place in the affections of our fellow. countrymen that it held in the fortien; thus given place to popular repre sentation. Hence the network of elected bodies which now controls every- thing in the United Kingdom from the Parish Pump to the selection of the Secretary of State for the Colon'es, who, in common with other Ministers, is obliged to obtain the confirmation of his ap- pointment from some constituency. What, then, is the explanation of the absolute abrogation of this principle in Hong kong 1 Can it be argued that the British residents of this Colony are less loyal or less intelligent than those who have been admitted to the franchise at home? The idea needs only to be mentioned in Forder to be dismissed with ridicule. For
if they had remained in the United King dom those who now live in Hongkong would have been, eligible to exercise a Frote not only in regard to their own domestic concerns but in regard, also, to those wider issues with which the Imperial Government has to deal. They would not, indeed, have been precluded from following the example of Mr Keswick and Mr. GRESHAM STEWART and taking a seat in the House of Commons itself. The only reason, therefore, for the continuance in Hongkong of an anti- quated system which the Colony hes long outgrown is the failure of the community to press their claims with sufficient persistency. If proper steps are taken to bring their case before the attention of the Secretary of State himself. Instead of allowing it to be pigeon-hole by the permanent officials of the Colonial Office, it will have a good prospect of receiv ing sympathetic consideration. We ven- ture to doubt, however, whether Mr POLLOCK's proposal would be accepted in its entirety. For while a strong claim can be made out by the British residents of the Colony to a system of government more in accordance with that which they have been accustomed to regard as a natural right, there would be some difficulty in showing that it ought to be extended to other sections of the community to whom it is entirely foreign.