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8. On the first of these I am little qualified to speak, but I suggest that the differences between Singapore and Hong Kong are sufficient to negative the view that it is incongruous to treat the two Colonies differently.
Begins.
Following is a note by Hazlerigg on this point.
There are outstanding differences between Singapore and Hong Kong which operate against
constitutional advances in Hong Kong on the same lines as those proposed for Singapore.
(a) Singapore has had experience of Municipal Government, which afforded a training ground far more extensive than that offered by the limited field of functions of the Hong Kong Government Council.
(b) The geographical position of Singapore makes for a permanent population despite diversity of races, while that of Hong Kong inevitably makes for a transient population subject to great influxes of the least desirable classes in times of economical and political trouble in China.
(c) The heterogeneous community of Singapore is not subject, as is the preponderantly Chinese community of Hong Kong, to political influence of a single alion nationalist party. Thus Singapore may have a reservoir of individuals fitted to assume Legislative functions, while Hong Kong patently lacks this. The ride franchise based on ucult suffrage, with no property or literacy qualifications proposed for Singapore, would in Hong Kong result in an electorate largely composed of semi-illiterate labourers having no permanent or substantial interest in the Colony and dangerously susceptible to the influence of Chinese golitical parties, Eads.
9. As regards lack of enthusiasm reported in my confidential despatch, I must make it clear that, while my (renquiries) disclosed a lack of enthusiasm for any constitutional changes, they definitely indicated a predilection for a Municipal Council rather than for a
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