(1) An increase of the Unofficial Members of the Executive Council from two to four, and the substitution of the principle of election for nomi- nation, the electoral bodies to be the Chamber of Commerce and the Unofficial Justices of the Peace.
(2) An Unofficial majority on the Legislative Council by increasing the number of Unofficial Members from six to ten, all of them, except the two Chinese, to be elected-one half by the Chamber of Commerce and the other half by the Unofficial Justices of the Peace.
The electorates suggested, though obviously open to criticism, were put forward because, being already in existence, they involved no innovation and were therefore, it was hoped, less likely to meet with official opposition. The Governor, however, ready to seize upon any argument that would serve his purpose by ataving off the evil day, pointed out in his despateh to the Secretary of State that the Chamber of Commerce consisted of only 150 members and the Unofficial Justices of the Peace of only 120. This objection was anticipated by Mr. POLLOCK in a covering letter, proposing an alternative franchise composed of Jurors and those eligible for jury service but exempt by reason of their occupations. Mr. BONAR Law, who was then Secretary of State, replied laconically, under date August 10th, 1916, that he saw no adequate reason for departing from the decision reached by Lord RIPON twenty years earlier.
This led to the formation of the Constitutional Reform Association in May of the following year in order that the task of pressing for reform might be placed in the hands of a permanent body instead of being left to one or two individuals. Out of a commendable desire not to do anything that might embarrass the Imperial Government during the war, nothing in furtherance of the chief object of this organisation was attempted until the great struggle was over, but on January 8th, 1919, at a largely attended public meeting in the Theatre Royal, the following resolutions were passed unanimously for submission to the Secretary of State :-
(1) That the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council be increased
from six to nine, thus giving an Unofficial majority of one.
(2) That of the nine Unofficial Members seven, who must be British sub-
jects, be elected as follows:-
One by the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce.
One by the Non-Official Justices of the Peace.
One by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce or some other representa-
tive Chinese body.
Four (one of Portuguese race and three of British race) by British subjects on the Jurors' List and those eligible for but exempted from jury service.
"This, it will be noticed, is the most modest of the three schemes. It neither asks that the Official Members of the Legislative Council shall be free to speak and vote as their consciences dictate; nor that there should be any interference with the existing constitution of the Executive Council, which exercises no legislative functions other than those delegated to it by the Legislative Council, such as framing regulations under Ordinances; and though it re- peats the demand for an Unofficial majority in the Legislature it limits that majority to one. Again, while retaining the representative of each of the two bodies originally selected by the Imperial authorities for electoral purposes, it submits a new and more popular franchise for the remaining European Un- official Members of the Council. Finally, it recognises the claim of British subjects, other than those of British race, in the Colony to consideration.
No reply to this last demand was received for two years, but in the interval the Committee of the Constitutional Reform Association were informed that Lord Miluer, who was the Secretary of State for the Colonies, would await a report from the newly appointed Governor, Sir R. E. Stubbs, after he had had time to acquaint himself with local conditions. The Committee waited upon His Excellency early in 1920, some six months after his arrival, in order to explain their views to him, and it was generally understood that he was in sympathy with at least a part of their programme-the demand, for example, that election should be substituted for nomination in the case of Unofficial European Members of the Council. It was surprising, therefore, to learn last February, as a result of a question addressed by Lt.-Col. John Ward, M.P., in the House of Commons to Mr. Winston Churchill, who had succeeded Lord Milner at the Colonial Office, that it had been decided not to make any change in the number or mode of selection of the members of the Legislative Council. No less surprising was it to discover, a little later, that a third Unofficial Member had been added to the Executive Council, despite the fact that upon reflection the public had abandoned their earlier demand in this direction because it would not give them any greater measure of control.
The persistency of the demand for some approach to representative Government--a demand which, as we have seen, dates from 1891-ia conch- sive evidence of a settled conviction on the part of the community through- out several generations, and is a complete rebuttal of the charge made by Sir William Robinson, a former Governor, that it was merely the outcome of an agitation on the part of "a few unquiet spirits."
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