TNAG-0937-FCO40-1156-Visits-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-th-1980 — Page 242

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gate". In short, however autocratic the Government, there can be democracy at parish pump level.)

3. The vital reservation, which is the factor influencing China,

is the risk that a wider franchise in Hong Kong, even in innocuous

and low-level district committees, might result in political

polarisation to the detriment of Peking. We need to regard this as

a serious risk, at least one to be examined. If district or

neighbourhood councils were elected, or had elected participation,

and thus became interesting to the population at large, I suspect

factional competition for seats might well raise the political temperature rather than lower it. More serious, a nationalist faction might emerge and capture councils, or at least provoke a communist counter-challenge. None of this would be in the interest

of good administration in Hong Kong, nor would the Chinese

Government see this as in their interest.

4.

This being said, Mr Blaker might care to explore with

Sir M MacLehose the possibility of a study without commitment of functions which could be devolved on to elected local committees (or

committees with a majority of elected membership). There might be two forms of committee: district/neighbourhood committees (ie having

a number of functions: there could be attractions in Mr Rowlands'

idea that local councils might manage local housing once this had been allocated and built): the second being functional (eg school boards). But given the way that urban development is now concen- trated into the New Territories, it might have to be axiomatic in any study that even if a new system was thought feasible it should extend across all of the Colony and URBCO would have to disappear.

5. There is one final reservation in any such suggestion for a quiet study of the possibilities: that in the initial stages this would have to be kept confidential, which might not be possible in the sieve-like circumstances of Hong Kong. But if anything leaked, the Chinese Government might get very tense; and widespread speculation would be a distruptive factor in Hong Kong itself. Such a quiet study, even if the Governor liked the idea, might not be

possible for this reason. Nor of course would it deal with the real interest on the part of a handful of MPs in this country in signs of progress towards popular involvement of some sort. I am minuting separately on this latter point.

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