a popular demand, they are likely to achieve their
Tha
object and, in this case, whether in spite of the time
and effort which has already been expended on them, it
would be better to make a fresh approach to the problem along
the lines of making the Central Government more democratic.
8. I and other members of the Government have
recently been receiving communications expressing
some impatience at the apparent lack of progress in the
formulation of proposals to give effect to my predecessor's
statement of policy in the House of Commons on the 1st May.
I have pointed out, in reply,
that your proposals were
received at the beginning of November and that it is a
noteworthy achievement that such detailed consideration can
have been effected in the first five months after the
restoration of Civil Government.
Nevertheless should
This statement, which
you feel that a fresh approach on the lines indicated above
is desirable and is likely to be profitable, I should
wish to make a public statement.
would probably take the form of a reply to a Question when
Parliament reassembles in January might, subject to your
observations, be on the following lines:-
"On the first May, my predecessor announced in this House that His Majesty's Government had had under consideration
the means by which in Hong Kong, as elsewhere in the
Colonial Empire, the inhabitants of the territory can be
given a fuller and more responsible share in the management
of their own affairs. He went on to say that it was thought
that one possible method of achievement this end would be by
handing over certain functions of internal administration
to a Municipal Council constituted on a fully representative
basis but that the Governor had been asked to thoroughly
examine these important issues in consultation with the
representations of all sections of the community in Hong Kong.
Since that time the Governor of Hong Kong and his
have
Advisers had been continuously engaged, in consultation with
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