TNAG-0215-FCO40-251-Appointments-to-membership-of-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Ko-1970 — Page 117

CONFIDENT IAL

6.

Unofficial Members: It has also been agreed with the Governor that, as an interim measure, all the thirteen existing nominated unofficial members should be reappointed on a provisional basis for an unspecified period, with effect from 1 July. This arrangement (which is in accordance with the Royal Instructions) was adopted

in order to allow more time in which to sort out the substantive

membership of the Council.

7.

We have for the past two or three years been enjoining the

Governor to broaden the basis for his selection of unofficial members for appointment to the Executive and Legislative Councils (i.e. by extending it beyond the business and professional community).

But we have ourselves admitted that the possibilities of doing so

are limited. It is inherent in the nomination system that the Governor should make appointments from amongst people who have made

their mark in the community in one way or another; these are the people from industry, commerce and the professions. Because of the cleavage between Nationalist and Communist affiliations, the trade union movement has not so far thrown up anyone of acceptable representative capacity or stature. Moreover, service on the central councils of Government takes up a great deal of time and is

unpaid.

8.

One possibility which has been suggested in the past is the nomination of one or two elected members of local Government bodies. However, at present the field is limited to elected members of the Urban Council and it would be wiser to await the reorganisation of local government bodies (on which you wrote to the Governor recently) before pursuing this idea any further.

9.

The Governor has however recommended that the following should

not be reappointed:-

Y. C. Tse

(first appointed in 1964)

Flag A

K. Watson

H. C. Fung

M. A. R. Herries

(first appointed in 1964)

(first appointed in 1964)

(first appointed in 1968) (m departure from HK)

Of these four members, three are retiring of their own accord and in the case of the fourth member (H. C. Fung) the Governor is not prepared to recommend reappointment. His reasons are given in paragraph 20 of his letter of 12 June and appear to be sound.

/ Mr. Herries

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CONFIDENTIAL