TNAG-0006-FCO40-42-Constitutional-development-1968 — Page 29

Ed (2829)

Reference.....

13

X

Minister of State

Mr. Jeremy Thorpe in the letter below mentions Singapore, but I think he probably has in mind the

arrangements which existed in North Borneo and

Sarawak. So far as I am aware, Singapore has had a normal electoral system in existence for many years.

In North Borneo until the elections which were held this year, the arrangements were that elections were held for District Councils and when these had

been completed, the District Councils themselves then elected one or two representatives, according to their size, to the Legislative Council.

A similar system is in existence in Sarawak.

of the reasons why new elections have not been held in Sarawak up to now is that the delimitation of constituencies to hold direct elections has not

yet been carried out.

One

For a similar system to be introduced in Hong Kong it will be necessary first to establish local Councils. As you know, proposals to do so are now open to public discussion in Hong Kong. Once these

local Councils have been established it should then

be possible to use them as electoral colleges to elect representatives to the Hong Kong Legislative Council. I understand from Mr. Carter that the

Governor of Hong Kong already has this possibility in mind.

This kind of arrangement for indirect election has also been used in parts of Africa and was in fact used when elections were first introduced in

Papua New Guinea. Some years ago Mr. Hasluck, who

was then Minister for Territories in the

Australian Government, had discussions with us in the Colonial Office about using District Councils as electoral colleges, and the then African Studies Branch of the Colonial Office (under Mr. Hudson)

warned against the system and said that it had not

been very effective in Africa because it tended to

blur the distinction between local Government and

central Government. There had been some quite

considerable criticism that Councillors elected to

the Legislative Council still regarded themselves as

primarily