TNAG-1289-FCO40-1641-Terminology-for-the-description-of-Hong-Kong-by-internationa-1984 — Page 141

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Those aims were strongly supported by the majority of the organisations and individual members of the public who commented on the Green Paper. They have been retained as the aims of the White Paper.

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Since the Green Paper was published, the draft agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom and the Government of the People's Republic of China has been initialled. It contains provisions relating to the government, executive and legislature of Hong Kong after 1997. In preparing the White Paper the Government borne in mind the provisions in the draft agreement.

Legislative Council

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In the Green Paper it was proposed that a number of the members of the

the Legislative Council be elected indirectly. It was suggested that these members should be chosen in part by an electoral college consisting of the members of the Urban Council, the new Regional Council and the District Boards; and in part by specific functional consitituencies.

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In public comment on these proposals the relative merits of direct and indirect elections were debated at length. There was substantial support for direct elections from some sections of the community who made their views public. But there was little demand for them to be introduced immediately. A number of people considered that a start might be made in this direction in 1988, with the number of directly elected members being increased progressively thereafter. Others wished to reserve judgment. There will undoubtedly be continuing debate in the community on this issue in the coming years. The experience gained in the indirect election of members and the evolution of public opinion which will accompany that process will be relevant to that debate.

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Another widely expressed view was that the proposals in the Green Paper were too cautious and conservative. It was suggested that even in 1985 a greater number of the Legislative Council could be elected by the elctoral college and by the functional constituencies; and that, a corollary to this, the overall size of the Council should be increased so as to ensure that there was room for all sectors of our community to be properly represented.