5.
of a Council containing representatives of the Chinese community,
my Committee wishes to recommend, in the strongest possible way,
that the basis of election of Chinese Councillors should be by
way of electoral colleges, until such time as the general standard
of literacy and political maturity is such that a form of general
franchise can be introduced.
W
Apart from all other considerations, my Committee believes
that the greatest possible practical difficulties would be found in
the compilation of a list of Chinese voters. It is a thing which
has never been attempted anywhere in China, and to those with a
knowledge of the vagaries of the Chinese language and system of
nomenclature, and the possibilities for fraud which they present,
it is evident that nothing but confusion and cheating would be likely
to follow upon the enormous amount of work which the attempt would,
in any event, involve.
1
Again, the Chinese are by nature suspicious of all kinds
of official enquiry or registration (the opposition to census is an
apt example), as they believe that some ulterior motive lies behind
the enquiry, so it is almost certain to be found that the solid body
of honest but old-fashioned Chinese residents of Hong Kong
those whose voting strength "would probably be the most valuable -
would be just those who would try to avoid inclusion in the voting
register, and even if so included, would probably refrain from
recording their votes.
-
i.e.
It is because of these and many other considerations that
my Committee is convinced that the only practical system for securing
effective representation of the Chinese community in the Council
will be to use one or more electoral colleges. This is the system
used in China itself for the election of representatives to the
National Assembly which is, so far, the greatest advance in the
democratic development of the country. It is also the system whi ch
was used in Shanghai for the election of Chinese Councillors, where
experience over many years showed that it produced a group of able
men who had both the full confidence of all classes of the Chinese