TNAG-0291-FCO40-327-Constitutional-development-of-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 6

CONFIDENT IAL

Mr Rushford (Legal Advisers)

HONG KONG CONSTITUTION

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1.

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Please see Sir L Monson's minute to me of 13 September.

2. I have been unable to find anything indicating that this idea has ever been considered for Hong Kong.

3. Since representative government with eventual independence is not a possibility for Hong Kong changes to the Constitution of the Colony must be confined to measures designed (i) to improve the machinery of Government generally, (ii) to improve the Government's means of assessing public opinion or (iii) to improve the Government's relations with the public.

4. We in the Department have long felt that something should be done about the bottleneck in the Secretariat. Interestingly enough, this question has been aired recently in the Legislative Council in Hong Kong.

5.

The assessment to which Sir L Monson referred in paragraph 4 of his minute is of course a political assessment, and we do not wish to worry you about this. I would however appreciate your views on the idea of introducing with the provision to which Sir L Monson has referred some kind of

member system". Have you ever come across a

"member system" in which the "members" were nominated members of the Legislative Council for anything other than a few months or perhaps a year or so - prior to elections?

12 October 1971

Eɣaria Пай

E O Laird

Hong Kong Department

CONFIDENTIAL