CO537-2188 — Page 458

HONG KONG

CONSTITUTION CILATORS

Draft of Proposed Statement in the House of Commons

*

16.

On the 1st May my predecessor announced in this

House that His Majesty's Governant had had under

consideration the means by which in Hong Kong, as elsewhere

in the Colonial impire, the inhabitants of the territory

could be given a fuller and more responsible share in the

management of their own affairs. He went on to say that it

was thought that one possible method of achieving this end

would be by handing over certain functions of internal

administration to a Municipal Council constituted on a

fully representative basis but that the Governor had been

asked thoroughly to examine these important issues in

consultation with the representatives of all sections of

community in Hong Kong.

The Governor and his Advisers held these consultations

and after considering other alternatives he came to the

conclusion, with which agree, that

(a) a Municipal Council should be set up in Hong Kong

on the widest representative basis possible. The majority

of the members will be elected, and the Council #ill

gradually assume as many of the present functions of the

Central Covernment as can appropriately be assigned to it.

The Municipality will include Kowloon, but not that area

of the New Territories outside Kowloon which by reason of

its rural character is not entirely suitable for immediate

inclusion in the area to be administered by the Municipal

Council.

(b) t the constitution of the Legislative Council

should be modified with the object of securing on that

body a more direet and a proportionately increased

representation of the unofficial community. Under his

recommendation, which I have accepted, the official members

#ill be reduced to seven, and of the eight unofficial

members