CO129-433 - Governor Sir May - 1916 [5-6] — Page 271

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one of them to be elected by the Chamber of Commerce and the other by the Non-Official Justices of the Peace, and that any future vacancies on that Council may be filled by election by one of those bodies instead of by Government nomination.

as

3. In the second place, in regard to the Legislative Council, Your Petitioners would point out that, as at present constituted (and as it has existed since 1896, when the Revenue was about

against

in $2,600,000,

1915) about $11,380,000

this

Council consists of 8 Official Members, and of 6 Unofficial Mem- bers, 2 of whom only are elected by the aforesaid bodies as representatives of the Public, the other 4 Unofficials, of whom 2 are Chinese, being appointed by His Excellency The Governor.

Your Petitioners submit:

(1) That, as regards all the Unofficial Members of this Council (other than the Chinese Members who stand on a somewhat special footing), the principle of election instead of Government nomination ought to be applied, and they would humbly submit that it is somewhat inconsistent, whilst trusting the Chamber of Commerce and Non-Official Justices to elect some of the European Members of this Council, to deny the right of election to them in the case of the other European Unofficial Members.

(2) That the number of Unofficial Members be increased to 10 by the addition of 4 Unofficial Members, SO as to create an Unofficial Majority in the Legislative Council, $S in the case of Cyprus and British Honduras.

In support of this second submission it is necessary to point out that the Official Members of the Legislative Council are not free to vote according to their convictions, and that, inasmuch as the Governor or other Presiding Officer, can commandeer all the Official votes, the Officials possess an absolute and permanent majority, whereas the Unofficials are in a permanent and hopeless minority. Under such circum- stances a somewhat painful irony attaches to clause XVIII of the Royal Instructions, which enacts that "All questions proposed for debate in the Legislative Council shall be decided by the majority of votes, and the Governor or the