11
(ii) Sex.
Women as well as men should be entitled to vote.
(iii) Literacy. It is generally agreed that all electors should
(iv) Race.
be able to read and write English or Chinese.
The inclusion of persons without this qualification
would make the work of registration almost
impossible.
In the case of the qualifications required of
councillors it was contended that all should be
British subjects and it is also contended,, though
not so strongly, that all electors should be
British subjects. Such a requirement would
probably disfranchise three-quarters of the
population and thus defeat the intention of His
Majesty's Government.
In my opinion the franchise
should be open to persons of any nationality.
(v) Property qualification
or alternatively
Enclosure 6.
Jury Service qualification.
It will be necessary in my opinion to insist that
a voter should dossess one of these two
qualifications.
Details of this proposal are
ㄓ
given in the enclosed note which has been
prepared for me by Mr. Hazlerigg.
(vi) Residential qualification. Here the same considerations
apply as those which I set out in paragraph 17(c),
(a) and (e) above when dealing with the question
of the residential qualifications for Councillors.
For Chinese who are not British subjects I
propose that the residential qualification, of
voters should be fixed at six years residence
in the Colony out of the preceding ten years, and
for British subjects, non-British Europeans, and
Americans, who are otherwise qualified to vote,
my suggestion is that the requirement should be
not less than one year's residence since attaining