CO537-1651 — Page 119

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(ii) Sex.

Women as well as men should be entitled to vote.

(iii) Literacy. It is generally agreed that all electors should

(iv) Race.

be able to read and write English or Chinese.

The inclusion of persons without this qualification

would make the work of registration almost

impossible.

In the case of the qualifications required of

councillors it was contended that all should be

British subjects and it is also contended,, though

not so strongly, that all electors should be

British subjects. Such a requirement would

probably disfranchise three-quarters of the

population and thus defeat the intention of His

Majesty's Government.

In my opinion the franchise

should be open to persons of any nationality.

(v) Property qualification

or alternatively

Enclosure 6.

Jury Service qualification.

It will be necessary in my opinion to insist that

a voter should dossess one of these two

qualifications.

Details of this proposal are

ㄓ

given in the enclosed note which has been

prepared for me by Mr. Hazlerigg.

(vi) Residential qualification. Here the same considerations

apply as those which I set out in paragraph 17(c),

(a) and (e) above when dealing with the question

of the residential qualifications for Councillors.

For Chinese who are not British subjects I

propose that the residential qualification, of

voters should be fixed at six years residence

in the Colony out of the preceding ten years, and

for British subjects, non-British Europeans, and

Americans, who are otherwise qualified to vote,

my suggestion is that the requirement should be

not less than one year's residence since attaining