587

this stage, but I see no harm in letting them have a

copy of the correspondence

Becret LF.

Tallinbuck

10.626

The following remarks in which I concur

are submitted by Mr.Beckett:

"(1) To appoint Chow now would have a good

effect; but he is an oldish man and will be very

difficult to replace. To replace him by e European would involve a loss of face for te Chinese considerably out of proportion to the advantage of his appointment, to replace him by what the Chinese politely term a bastard would be intolerable. Yet if anything should happen to Chow in the near

future, there can be no doubt that, on the assumption

that the Executive Council is open to all, Sir R.

Ho Tung would have a very strong claim to a place, and would leave no string unpulled to get it. This would,

so far as I can judge, infuriate the pure-blooded

Chinese.

(2) Even if the appointment of a Chinese is inevitable, politics, as Professor Teller told the King, are mainly a matter of pace, and "festina lente"

is not a bad motto in China.

(3) It is quite true that the original ground

for Unofficial Representation on the Executive

minuicipal Council in Hong Kong was the prinicipal consideration referred to by Mr.Clutterbuck: but now that for no such

reason, a similar concession has been made in the

Straits, it is quite true that we have to take the

Straits

Straits into account: and there again though there

I

except the higher imperial importance is no great objection in principle, there would of defence consons.

at Singapore. be great difficulty in finding the men.

url, add In Cyprus and Gibraltar the unofficial

?

Н

members of the Executive Council are extraordinary

members only summoned when their advice is required and therefore not when questions are under

definu

consideration: and that although in Cyprus there is actually a majority of Elected Members in the Legislative Council. These unofficial members are Greeks or Turks like the vast majority of the inhabitants so that their position would be analogous to a Chinese member in Hong Kong.

But I am afraid that as there are already unofficial (European) members of the Executive Council who are full members, it would take away all the grace of the concession if the proposed Chinese members were given an inferior status.

We knoww sii Chow

(8gd) WALTER D.ELLIS

12/6

Shore.com.

Íte 4 an able

2 sensible old gentlemen of pure Chimans descent

could I fast viare acquisition to the Council,

A

be a

if this cent Clementi adheres to his proposal ottich

we shall have to agree. But it is all to the good to put the objections to hand.

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