SECRET & PERSONAL
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In
electoral districts would impose undesirable delay, and at the same time to widen the franchise of a body of lower status so as to give it a body of electors who would be precisely those persons who had been proposed as electors for the Legislative Council. other words, if the franchise of the Urban Council can be extended so as to include all British subjects without undue delay, what is to prevent the same pro- cess being adopted in respect of the Legislative Council?
In the second place, British subjects not qualified under Section 3 of Ordinance No.7 of 1935 are likely to be relatively few in number and would, in practice, be limited to Chinese British subjects without a knowledge of English, since, as you are aware, the Jurors' List consists of alí persons who have "a sufficient knowledge" of the English language.
The view was taken therefore that the proposed extension of the franchise of the Urban Council was both illogical, if the reasons for delaying direct election to Legislative Council are to be main- tained, and without any great significance, since the accretion to the electorate would be a relatively small number of persons whose claims to British nationality might be difficult to prove or disprove. Members, therefore, advised and I accepted their advice, that it should be suggested that the sentence beginning "I should also like to see ... " should be omitted from paragraph 5 of the draft despatch.
Members also commented on two relatively minor points in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the draft despatch. As regards the opening passage of para- graph 3, Mr. Landale tabled his motion on 27th April, 1949, but left the Colony on leave soon afterwards and was not present when Sir Man Kam Lo moved the resolution on 22nd June, 1949. I suggest therefore that appropriate amendments should be made to para- graph 3 by omission of the specific reference to Mr. Landale. I suggest that the reference should be to the "Unofficial Members motion". As regards para- graph 4, members felt that the words: "and for this reason i consider that it is open to objection", did little justice to the fact that they and members of the public had at all times realised the objections to the small electorate of British subjects, and they felt that the emphasis should be left on the point that non-British participation in the selection of members of Legislative Council can be covered for the time being by the indirect processes now proposed. We would prefer, therefore, to see the words quoted
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