16.
SECRET
a) the immediate problem is to absorb the new type of membership into the Legislative Council and this is all the traffic will bear this year at any rate.
b) The reaction of the CPG to a "Member System" would need to be carefully assessed, though I personally do not believe there would be any insuperable problem.
c) The fields of responsibility and the powers of the "Members", and their terms of office, and remuneration would all need very careful consideration.
d) So too would the mechanics whereby the ultimate responsibility of the Secretary of State is to be maintained as the "Members" would be able to exercise pressure of a new type by means of resignation.
e) No move should be made unless and until we are assured that men of the right calibre would be willing to serve.
f) I assume that such a move would in any case not be acceptable in Westminster until the basis of membership of the Legislative Council had been broadened.
Constitutional and political position to be reached by the '80s
30.
Nevertheless, provided all goes
well with the enlarged Council, I think we could reasonably expect Hong Kong to start the '80s with a Legislative Council which was both enlarged and drawn from a much wider cross-section of the population, and in which overt responsibility for selected fields of government was already in the hands of local unofficials. The whole would be under-pinned by widespread grass-roots organizations, assisted by the Home Affairs Department, and playing useful and
No comments yet.
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