CO129-433 - Governor Sir May - 1916 [5-6] — Page 215

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and from the Despatch of the late Mr. Joseph Chamberlain No. 119

of the 29th. of May, 1896, in which he stated:-

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10270-

76.

"In his despetch of the 23rd. of August, 1894,

Lord Ripon stated that he could hold out no hope that

Hongkong will cease to be a Crom lony. Neither can I

hold out any such hope, for I conceive that in the case of Hongkong, Representative Government, on whatever form of franchise it might be based, and with whatever suppos-

-ed safeguards as to the Executive power, would be

wholly out of place".

5.

It scarcely seems necessary for me to endorse these weighty pronouncements of eminent Administrators and States- -men, except to point out that it is quite impracticable to apply the principle of election to appointments to a body like the

Executive Council. This is a question which has not been previous-

-ly raised in this Colony, and it does not seem necessary to set

out the very obvious reasons for which such a proposal could not be

entertained. But I would briefly draw attention to the nature of

the electorate to whom the Petitioners would confide the election

of all the Un-official members of the Executive Council and of

eight, out of ten of the Un-official majority in the Legislative

Council.

The Census for 1911 shows that the total

population was 456,739 composed of 12,075 Non-Chinese and 444,664 Chinese and that at that time the British male adult Civil

population numbered 1,640.

From the same Census the following figures in

respect of the Civil population in 1911 are deduced:-

(a). Male adult British subjects of

Portuguese race...

.370.

(b). Male adult British subjects of

1

Indian race (exclusive of Police,

Gaol Staff and Watchmen)

..357.

(c).

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