CO537-2188 — Page 6

have gone /

is based on the fact that the decision to liberalise the Constitution of Hong Kong, possibly by way of the introduction of an elected Municipality, was taken last-May, without any outside Ministerial consultation, and that the Secretary of State will, therefore, decide that there is no need for such consultation now.

Since the drafts, as now amended, reservé for further consideration the machinery to implement the project for an elected Municipality, I don't think that it is essential to pass the file through Mr. Roberts Wray at its present stage. It should, however, go to him as soon as the telegrams to the Governor the communication to the Treasury/and copies of the telegrams have been sent to the Foreign Office.

17.2.47.

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My principal reaction to this as a newcomer is that we have put to the Governor pretty forcefully the alternativ. of constitutional advance through the Legislative Council, and that he has considered this thoroughly but adheres in the light of his judgment of the local constitution to his original recommendation. In circumstances like this it is usually wise to be guided in the last resort by the judgment of the local authorities who will have to carry the project through.

The

I therefore agree generally with the two drafts. I am inclined to be somewhat doubtful on paragraph 2(c) of the longer draft. extension of electoral responsibility in an Asiatic community like that of Hong Kong, which moreover is, as I understand it, of peculiar instability, is bound to be something of an experiment, and the Governor and his advisers may well be in the right in proposing in the first instance to have an age limit higher than we are accustomed to in this country. rate, I would prefer not to use the words "I feel strongly" in this paragraph.

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