245
A
A
I assume however, that what the words are intended to convey is that the English Scotch and Irish in Hongkong should elect representatives of themselves to the Legislative Council. If this is the meaning, then it is obvious from the figures which have been given above that considerably more than nine tenths of the population will be entirely excluded from the franchise, that Europeans who are not of the catagory described, and Americans will be excluded as well as
British Residents it is presumed Chinese, and that among those who alone will be entitled to vote, the civil element, some proportion of which moreover consists of government officials, will be swamped by the Military and Naval element.. It may be said that the naval and military forces should be debarred from voting on the ground that they are not resident in the colony, but the same objection would apply also, though probably in a lesser degree, to the civil population. Indeed over and above any other arguments which can be urged against representative governments in Hongkong, it appears to me that the transient character of the population is by itself
a serious obstacle.
11.
The second claim is the compliment or rather
the extension of the first. The Petitioners ask not
only that there shall be elected representatives in the Council but that there shall be a majority of such representatives, in other words that, at any rate as regards Legislation, the power shall be vested in a very small section of the population and that more than nine tenths of it shall be controlled by representatives
of the smaller remainder.
shall
12. The third demand is that the official members
be allowed to speak and vote as they please. It is a
demand which is familiar in the case of Crown Colonies,