TNAG-0288-FCO40-324-Appointments-to-membership-of-Executive-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 118

NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN

W(B)L 51-7406

CONFIDENTIAL

acceptable to public opinion as a whole.

(e)

Character of the Legislative Council

We certainly would not wish to see a Council

which did not have the confidence and respect

of the public at large; at the same time we

do not think it would necessarily be a bad

thing if the Council were to contain elements

of permanent dissent from the majority view, i

even if there were at times a slight risk that

the President might have to use his original

and casting votes.

7.

We fully realise that the position as

seen from here may not agree with your own

WO

view of things; but I put forward the above

ideas as a basis for discussion and I should

be most grateful to know what you think about

them. In the light of Hong Kong's

remarkable progress in recent years we believe

that the time has come to consider radical

changes in the present arrangements. Indeed,

we would not dismiss out of hand the possibility

of enlarging one or other Council (or both

of them) if that would help us to achieve our

object.

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