CO537-1651 — Page 157

3.7 47.

HONG KONG

NO. 222

4

5/1/5/4/47.

bespier

Colonial Office,

Downing Street,

3rd July, 1947.

Sir,

Constitutional Changes in Hong Kong.

In his despatch No. 145 of the 22nd October, 1916,

Sir Mark Young submitted his views and recommendations for

modifying the existing constitutional arrangements in Hong Kong,

so as to give the inhabitants of the Colony a practical and

effective share in the management of their own affairs.

These recommendations were the subject of close

examination in the Colonial Office and consultation with

Sir Mark Young prior to the statement which I made in the House

of Commons on the 5th of March, 1947. In that statement I

announced my agreement with the main recommendation for the

establishment of a Municipal Council, on the widest

representative basis possible, which would gradually assume

as many of the present functions of the Central Government as

can appropriately be assigned to it, and would embrace in its

administrative area the whole of the Island of Hong Kong, the

Kowloon cedol territory, and that part of the New Territories

known as New Kowloon. I also explained that the remainder

of the area of the New Territories had been excluded for the

present for the reason that it is rural in character and

therefore not suitable for immediate inclusion in the arca to

be administered by the Municipal Council. I further announced

my acceptance of the proposal for a modification in the

constitution of the Legislative Council so as to secure on that

body a more direct and proportionately increased representation

of the unofficii community

THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING

THE GOVERNMENT OF

HONG KONG,

3.