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exclusively Chinese in the first case or non-Chinese in the second. I adhere

to my original proposal, and recommend that if the Council consists of thirty

members, as I have recommended above, fifteen should represent the Chinese

and fifteen the non-Chinese communities.

16.

There has been little controversy on the subject of the method

by which Councillors are to be selected for appointment. My proposal that

two-thirds should be directly elected and one-third nominated by professional

or other bodies has met with a sufficient measure of agreement to enable

me to proceed, as I shall do in later paragraphs of this despatch, with

detailed recommendations both for the setting up of electoral machinery and

for assigning the right of nomination to appropriate bodies.

17. Much thought has been devoted by most of those whom I have

consulted to the question of the qualifications of Councillors. It is

clear that a Councillor must possess all the qualifications, detailed in

paragraph 24 below, which are required of an elector of the same race but

there are certain additional requirements which it is necessary to consider.

(a) The weight of opinion is that no person under thirty years

of age should be a Councillor and that women should be eligible.

(b) There is a sharp divergence of opinion as to whether members

of the Council should be required to possess British Nationality

The view of the majority favours my original proposal that

membership should be open to persons of any nationality.

Having regard to the fact that approximately eighty per cent

of the inhabitants are not of British nationality I do not

think that the wishes of His Majesty's Government would be met

if membership were confined to those of British nationality.

(c) It is generally agreed that if Chinese who are not British

subjects are to be admitted to membership of the Council a

lengthy residential qualification should be required for them.

Varying periods, amounting in some cases to as much as twenty

years, have been suggested.

My original proposal was that residence for six years out of

the last ten should be required for both Councillors and

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