CO537-2188 — Page 497

Cad

15/4/47

IMPORTANT

OUTWARD TELEGRAM

TO HONG KONG (Sir M. Young)

FROM S. OF S.. COLONIES.

Sent 21st February, 1947.

22.45 hrs.

No. 330 Secret,

My telegram No. 329,

Begins.

Following is draft referred to in paragraph 8.

On the 1st May my predecessor announced in this House that His Majesty's Government had had under consideration the means by which in Hong Kong, as elsewhere in the Colonial Empire, 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 the community in Hong Kong,

Since that time the Governor and his Advisers have been continuously engaged in these consultations and after considering other alternatives he has now come to the conclusion, with which I 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 will gradually assume as many of the present functions of the Central Government as can appropriately be assigned to it, The Municipality will include Kowloon.

/(b)