TNAG-0518-FCO40-613-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 67

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CONFIDENTIAL

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HONG KONG:

1.

CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

At the meeting on 23 April Mr Mikardo said there was disquiet within the Labour Party at the absence of representative institutions in Hong Kong. In reply the Secretary of State recognised that there was a problem but added that Hong Kong was in a unique position, attached but completely unrelated to the hinterland. He had discussed the question of representation on the Legislative Council with the Governor who had told him that he proposed to widen this as soon as was practicable but had also explained the difficulty of finding good people for positions on a body which was, after all, more analogous to a Cabinet than a Legislature. The new Mutual Aid Committees might throw up natural leaders in due course; in the meantime the Secretary of State would be glad to pass on any names which the NEC wished the Governor to consider. No such names have since been submitted.

2.

When he next meets the International Committee of the NEC, the Secretary of State might say that he has given further thought to the problem of constitutional development in Hong Kong. We have no vested interest in the maintenance of unrepresentative institutions per se, as our whole colonial record shows. But there seems no way round the crucial difficulty of Chinese opposition to any move suggestive of the creation of an independent Hong Kong. The Chinese Government must be as aware as any of our record in granting elective self-government and independence to our former colonial territories. Furthermore it is a fact of life that a pro-KMT faction exists in Hong Kong and that the Chinese are very sensitive to moves which might wish the extension of Taiwan's influence there. The Secretary of Bitate might, in confidence, again remind the Committee of the fact that the election to the politically unimportant Urban District Council of someone with KMT affiliations led to representations from unofficial Chinese representatives in the Colony. An extension of the electoral ystem would, we suspect, provoke a lively reaction, and be viewed as an unfriendly act and a disturbance of the good relations between Britain and China.

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