connected with the registration of electors could be done as soon as Hong Kong care to start, though all formal steps would have to await the promulgation of the constitutional instruments. Even hould not be necessary if we were to adopt the course followed recently for the Gold Coast, of issuing a special Order in Council anticipating the constitution and enabling the local legislature to pass their Election Law. That, however, is a precedent which I should prefer not to follow in Hong Kong or anywhere else, and I have amended the draft letter on the assumption that we can ignore it.
26/9/50
Sir Charles Jeffries.
I have had this fair drafted as I have introduced some considerable amendments to the original draft besides embodying Sir K. Roberts-Wray's suggested amendments in paragraph 5. I now submit the draft
once appenal.
for
at
Attached to (44) is a note of the discussion which we had with the Governor, shortly before he left, on Mr. Nicoll's letter at (43) which replied to Mr. Paskin's letter at (38) on this file, which was approved by the Secretary of State in his minute of 10.8.
The main points in Mr. Nicoll's letter are:-
(a) the request for an increase of one in the
total of Unofficial Members (they suggest it should be an additional nominee; Sir A. Morse suggested to the Governor a member elected from the Social Welfare Associations; the Secretary of State had suggested a possible additional member from the Urban District Council));
nominated (b) that if there is an additional/Unofficial
Member, it would be unnecessary for the Governor to have an original as well as a casting vote;
(c)
15
the Unofficial Members dislike of the very important suggestion made in paragraph 6 of (38) which would provide, in effect, that British subjects who would have had a vote under the 1949 proposals would have a vote under the new proposals.
(The importance of this proposal was emphasized
in Mr. Cook's letter to Sir A. Grantham at (32) on this file which explained fully the reasons for it. Sir A. Grantham tells us that he sent a copy of this letter to Mr. Nicoll).
These points are dealt with in paragraphs 3, 4 and 5 of the attached draft which is, I think, self-explanatory.
/The
#
!
!