DRANT YL
63
DRAFT DESPATCH:
TO: ACTING GOVERNOR,
HONG KONG
Final Draft
Luyers to treas of.
and to
M
зларо
Sir,
In Galsworthy Morange No
Mounts. way Msee 96
9/6
Li T. Jaya 10/6
sop.
хваа 54145/4/46
(17)
Constitutional Changes in Hong Kong
X
In his despatch No.145 of the 22nd October, 1946, .
Sir Mark Young submitted his views and recommendations for. modifying
ohanging 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
statement I announced my agreement with the main
recommendation for the 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 à 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