PRESENT:
NOTES OF A MEETING IN THE SECRETARY OF STATE'S
ROOM ON THE 4TH OF JULY, 1950.
$8
Secretary of State
Parliamentary Under Secretary
Sir Alexander Grantham
Sir Charles Jeffries
Mr. Paskin
Mr. Sidebotham
Mr. Hall
Constitutional Reform
The
The Secretary of State said that he had read through the papers again. It appeared that in the middle of 1949 the Legislative Council had made proposals which the Governor had approved and sent to the Secretary of State, Mr. Creech Jones. These proposals were that the Legislative Council should consist of 11 unofficial members and 6 official members. Of the 11 unofficial
members 6 were to be elected and the franchise was restricted to British subjects giving an estimated total of 17,000. These proposals were generally approved by Mr. Creech Jones vide his minute at (11) on the 1950 file. The Secretary of State gave Sir A. Grantham a copy of Mr. Creech Jones' minute to read. Secretary of State enquired whether the proposals had been discussed with Mr. Creech Jones. Mr. Paskin said that they had and that further discussions on them were to take place after the Election. The Governor had analysed the way the voting might go and appeared satisfied. The Department here were however doubtful and when Mr. Creech Jones had approved the proposals he had thought that if the voting should go wrong the Governor could always use his reserve powers. At the discussions after the Election the Department had intended to put to Mr. Creech Jones the point that reserve powers are very seldom used and cannot be relied upon for carrying out general administration of Government.
2 The Secretary of State said that the "Young" Plan had certain attractions. Hong Kong was growing into a city state and could not afford two big authorities. Constitutional
advance might therefore be based on building up the municipality. These proposals had been dropped for a Legislative Council
with an unofficial majority which would include a majority of elected unofficials. These proposals were now being dropped for something regressive (Which the Secretary of State was not inclined to favour as being in accord with His Majesty's Government's general views as to the form which constitutional progress should take.) The real reason appeared to be that we did not want to do anything in Hong Kong. He thought that the only way in which we could keep Hong Kong in the Empire was to win over the population into wanting to remain in the Empire. During
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