CO537-6046 — Page 141

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Sir C. Jeffries said that he had in fact put this suggestion in a recent letter to Mr. Nicoll.

(v) Broadcasting and Feature Articles.

Sir K. Locke said that he hoped that material under these heads could be made available for Hong Kong. It was agreed that variety was needed in both broadcasting and articles otherwise the same people were continually being appealed to.

The appointment of a now Programme Secretary

in Hong Kong was mentioned and it was AGREED that it would be helpful if he saw Sir K. Lucke before leaving for Hong Kong.

(vi) Library Peilities.

Sir K. Locke pointed out that the general principle of a Council Library was that it should be treated more as a rofer

«neqlibrary for Council staff than as a general library for use by the public. There was no public library in Hong Kong but if at any time any body should concorn itself with the opening of a public library the Council would be willing to back them. The Governor thought a more likoly solution to the problem of providing library facili ..s would be for the Council Library to be taken over.

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Sir K. Locke thought that the British Council' would be prepared to agree to this if it were mutually beneficial to them and to Hong Kong.

3.

Constitution.

Mr. Paskin said that the conclusion provisionally reached at the discussion with the Governor un 21st June had been that the Governor's new scheme reconstituting the Logislative Council was better than the carlier onc. On one point however agreement had not been reached and that was the question of how big the unofficial majority should

bo.

On this matter the size of the unofficial majority really depended upon what one was aiming at. If the object was to achieve safety on the questions affecting the international status of Hong Kong then even a large unofficial majority made up in the way the Governor had suggested would be safe. If on the other hand, however the object was to ensure that Government would never be divided on a major question (including financial questions) then clearly the only safe arrangement would be for the unofficial majority to be restricted to one,

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Mr. Paskin went on to point out that it would be necessary for correspondence on the subject of the constitution to be published and he thought that this should be borne in mind. The Governor's new arrangements would be easy to justify in published correspondence on liberal grounds, e. g. the Secretary of State could object to the present proposals on the grounds of the very limited franchise and the Governor could in response then come back with his new proposals. If, on the other hand, it was

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/decided