TNAG-1354-FCO40-1795-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 84

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(3) Objectives and Principles of the White Paper

4.

that the

It would be fair to say, I think, that

plans for the further development of representative

government in Hong

Hong Kong, set out in the White Paper

published last November, have

attracted

widespread

support from the public at large. But I am not at all

plans, and the

sure that the objectives of those

principles on which they were based, have been fully

grasped. One consequence is that the functional

constituency concept is not as understood as it deserves

to be by those who will have the opportunity to

participate as electors or candidates in one or other of

the nine functional constituencies (let alone by those

who will not).

5.

So, this evening I shall

restate the

objectives and the principles

the principles upon which

upon which the proposals

in the Green Paper published last July were worked up

and later amended when the plans set out in the White

Paper were finalised. I shall then seek to put the role

of the functional constituency concept in the context of

those plans.

6.

The Government's objectives for the further

development of representative

representative government in Hong Kong

can be stated quite simply. The first objective is to

provide that the future system of government in Hong

Kong is

is rooted firmly in the community and,

thereby,