CO537-2188 — Page 72

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Mr.

Seel

Suthard. A Sams

T

Hong Kong Constitution

Mr. Mitchell, Secretary of the China Association, called to see me this morning, at the request of the Executive Committee of his

Association to whom Mr. Mitchell had passed the information about the Constitutional changes which Mr. Mayle and I gave him in the talk we had with him about 10 days ago. The Executive Committee had urged Mr. Mitchell to return to the Colonial Office to express their anxiety about the provision whereby, if Indians and Portuguese stand for election to the Council, at least one Indian and one Portuguese will be elected, irrespective of the number of votes they may obtain. The effect of this provision will be to create a non-European majority of at least one, provided at least one Indian stands for election.

2. The line I took with Mr. Mitchell was that taken in the draft letter which I recently submitted for the Secretary of State to send to Mr. Keswick, the Chairman of the Association, namely that it would be quite contrary to the general trend of modern Colonial constitutional development to provide for a European majority, on bodies such as the Hong Kong Municipal Council. (The draft letter to Mr. Keswick was with the Secretary of State this morning.) I quoted as examples the Nigerian Legislative Council and the Lagos Municipality, both of which have African majorities, and the Singapore Legislative Council, which again will have a non-European majority.

3. At Mr. Mitchell's request I also explained to him one more the modifications which are to be made to the composition of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong. When he realised (a) that the Hong Kong Leg. Co. will not have a Chinese majority and (b) that, in the words of the Secretary of State's despatch to Hong Kong, the Municipal Council "will, of course, be expected to act in conformity with any general policy laid down by the Central Government", Mr. Mitchell said that on reconsidera- tion, he saw much less cause for anxiety on the score of an Asiatic majority on the Municipal- Council. He added that he had perhaps been a little over hasty in feeling, and expressing, alarm on the point and said that he would now do his best to reassure his colleagues.

LL. He expressed the view that, when the leading European business firms in Hong Kong see that the Hong Kong Municipal Council will not have the same power as the former Municipal Council of Shanghai, they may decide to put up for election to the Council their second best, rather than their best men. I said I thought it would be a very great pity if they did, because obviously the Municipal Council would be greatly in need of experienced men from the outset. Mr. Mitchell quite agreed and said that, for what it is worth, he would try and persuade his colleagues in the China Association to use their influence with the local European business community to ensure that the latter put up their best men for the Council.

5. When