CO537-6046 — Page 311

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Mr. Wrath MP is ? nejing for

10.5.50

xv. copy of his imminutê at 'No 11.

information

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I am afraid that consideration of this important question of constitutional advance in Hong Kong has been hanging fire partly because it was known that the subject of Hong Kong was being ventilated in the Smaller Colonies Committee and we were uncertain as to whether that Committee would produce ideas which ought to be considered at the present time, and partly because personally have been very heavily engaged on other matters.

As regards the Smaller Colonies Committee, I have now added at No. 17 a minute enclosing some notes which have been put in by Sir John Maude. But I understand that it has now been agreed that the Committee should not concern itself with these immediate proposals and that accordingly we are again free to go ahead without further reference to that Committee.

As indicated in Mr. Sidebothem's minute, the late Secretary of State considered the Governors proposals in January last and was reasonably satisfied with them on certain assumptions relating to the use of reserve powers if an occasion should arise when there was an unofficial majority opposed to some matter of vital importance in connection with the Government of Hong Kong. On this aspect of the matter Mr. Sidebotham has come to the conclusion that, since reserve powers can only be used very rarely, and in extreme cases, the Governor should be asked to reconsider his proposals for the composition of the Legislative Council with a view to reducing the unofficial majority which he had accepted as appropriate.

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The time therefore has clearly come when these files should now be submitted to our new Secretary of State for whose it is necessary to recall that the proposals now under consideration are those submitted by the Governor in his Secret Despatch of the 25th August last (No. 58 on -/49),

there is

a very brief summary of the history of this matter in a note at No. 65 on -/49 which was prepared for the information of Mr. Rees Williams on the occasion of his visit to Hong Kong last October.

5 Apart from the question of the size of the unofficial majority in the Legislative Council (to which I revert below) the other aspect of these proposals which I think ought to be mentioned at this stage is the doubts that have been felt here as to whether, in the present state of our relations with Communist China, this is a suitable time to be embarking on experiments with the Constitution of Hong Kong. We put this point to the Governor in the telegram at No. 8 and in his reply of the 15th March (No. 10) he repeated that he would like these proposals to be dealt with with all reasonable speed so that an announcement could be made without undue delay. Since that date, our relations with Communist China have deteriorated, rather than improved, to the extent that the negotiations for the establishment of normal diplomatic relations have been dragging on without any sign of cooperation from the Chinese. We have moreover quite recently had to put to the Governor the question as to the effect on Hong Kong of a complete diplomatic break with Communist China,