DRAFT DESPATCH:
No.222.
12 %/
то ACTING GOVERNOR
69 on 54145/4/46.
(17)
ONG KONG
sir,
FRIKA
FOR
USE
Eastern No.182
COLONIAL
OFFIC
2- JUL
3/1/147.2#
FINAL DRAFT REVISED
Constitutional Changes in Hong Kong.
In his despatch No. 145 of the 22nd October, 1946,
Sir Mark Young submitted his views and recommendations for
modifying the existing constitutional arrangements in
Hong Kong, so as to give the inhabitants of the Colony a
practical and effective share in the management of their
own affairs.
2.
These recommendations were the subject of close
examination in the Colonial Office and consultation with
Sir Mark Young prior to the statement which I made in the
House of Commons on the 5th of March, 1947. In that state
I announced my agreement with the main recommendation for
establishment of a Municipal Council, on the widest
representative basis possible, which would gradually assume
as many of the present functions of the Central Government
as can appropriately be assigned to it, and would embrace
in its administrative area the whole of the Island of
Hong Kong, the Kowloon ceded territory, and that part of the
New Territories known as New Kowloon. I also explained that
the remainder of the area of the New Territories had been
excluded for the present for the reason that it is rural in
character and therefore not suitable for immediate inclusion
in the area to be administered by the Municipal Council.
I further announced my acceptance of the proposal for a
modification in the constitution of the Legislative Council
so as to secure on that body a more direct and
proportionately increased representation of the unofficial
community.
3.
Since then further consideration has been given to
the details of Sir Park Young's proposals, as set out in his
despatch No.145 of the 22nd October, 1946, and I am now
in