CO537-6046 — Page 170

proposals) to be based on the limited franchise and to have very

limited powers, (in which case the pro osals would

probably be condemned out of hand by all unofficial

opinion) would it not almost certainly be assumed that

something like the Young Plan proposals, including a

residential franchise, were still acceptable to the

Government?

Koreover if some ad hoc Commission or

body of experts were asked to work out the details of the

-scheme, one could hardly expect them to take account of

broad political considerations and to rule out on those

grounds either a wide franchise or extensive powers,

Looking at the matter from an administrative and local

government point of view they might well conclude that

r te payers should have a say in the spending of rates

and that a municipal body in a City of the size and

importance of Hong Kong should be entrusted with all

normal local government functions.

Whatever the

validity of the arguments against theis course in Hong

Kong, they could hardly be expounded in public.

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