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only natural to expect that the introduction of the system of popular election for Europeans would lead to a demand for the grant of similar privileges to the Chinese, supported no doubt by references to Chine's popularly elected Parliament, etc., etc. Indeed we already know that certain members of the Eurasian community will put forward this demand in the event of the requests of the Constitut- ional Reform Association being granted.
10.
If the demand was limited to the case of the Chinese members, it might not matter very much. The difficulty of establishing a satisfactory Chinese electorate would be great but it need not be insuperable. Unquestion- ably men of standing such as have represented the Chinese in Council in the past would not, at any rate at first, come forward for election. We should have to put up with inferior men but it is arguable that an inferior man who represents his electorate is better than a superior man who does not; and in time we might hope to overcome the aloofness of the better deas Chinese and induce them to
come forward for election so that the Colony would only suffer temporarily. But I fear that there can be no doubt that the demand would not stop at this point. The democratic principle of popular election once having been
established, the next step is obvious. "The Chinese
population is enormously in excess of the non-Chinese;
they pay the great bulk of the taxes: they form the
permanent element of the population. Why then should the
non-Chinese members of Council be twice as numerous as the
Chinese?"
"If members of the Council are to represent
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the community, let them represent the whole community and not a small part of it. Let all members be elected by a
popular frenchise. Away with racial prejudice, and so on
and so forth.
These