Mr.Paskin
You adding to OKHALI
This has awaited my retim from leave.
I agree that this must now he resubmitted.
I must
frankly state that I am still not at all happy about Hong Kong being granted the thofficial majority the Governor recommends.
Mr. Rees-Williams, Lord Listowel and the Secretary of State came to the conclusion that the unofficial majority should be so large as five excluding the Governor's casting vote, I think on the assumption that reserve powers could be purly drew upon if necessary. This, as Sir Kenneth Roberts-Wray has pointed out at "X" in his minute of 2nd February on this rile, has not in fact in the past at any rate been the case and in relation to two or three constitutions it has been stated that occasion for the use of reserve powers would rarely arise. Sir Charles Jeffries confirmed this.
Despite the arguments advanced in the preceding minutes I feel that if reserve powers are to be seldom, if ever, used it would be much wiser, having regard to the present situation in Hong Kong, a situation which is likely to become more difficult rather than less so, so far as one can see, for us to minimize as far as possible the likelihood of a frequent clash of opinion between the official and unofficial side which might result in the unofficials outvoting the Government on issues which, in the peculiar circumstances of Hong Kong, might prove of importance to the stability of the British regime there. This might well not be the case in a Colony with different circumstances.
Moreover, I think it would be quite improper to rely on nominated members necessarily voting with the Government. A nominated member should be appointed because he is a person whose views and experience the Governor considers might be be useful and helpful, but that does not mean that he is expected always to vote with the Government even on major issues. He should not be a ‘yes-man. That is something we have been trying steadily to get away from for a number of years now.
For the above reasons I still feel that it would be wiser at the present time to reduce the 'quantum' of the unofficial majority to something more on the lines of that which obtains in Singapore where there is a maximum voting strength of 10 plus the Governor's casting vote against a maximum of 13 unofficial votes providing the maximum unofficial votes is not more than 2 at the most, a Tsuggested in (C) of pars 5 of my note below 61 on the 1949 file bretons.
It is with great diffidence in view of the conclusion reached by Lord Listowel, Mr. Rees-Williams and Mr. Creech Jones on the 49 file below, in their minutes of 4/1 and 6/1, that I venture to suggest that this point should receive further consideration, and I do so because I think that the very limited extent to which reserve powers have been used in the past and are intended to be used, was not perhaps quite fully appreciated when these minutes were written.
If my view is accepted we should, of course, have to take the matter up with the Governor again, and when a final decision has been reached we shall then be in a position to clear the proposals finally with the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence.
gos
13.4.50
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