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clected unopposed without the need of a ballot at all: when some of their number began to interpret this as a vindication of their reform programme Mr. Lee Sheung-pui offered to stand in a new contest but his suggestion came to nothing.
By this time the UNA had entered the lists. In September, 1960, it appointed a committee to consider and report on the constitutional reform question. This committec on September 5 made a preliminary statement of principles supporting the CA-RC memorandum only as a "first step". It called for a Hongkong citizenship assuring freedom from ar- bitrary deportation, and a time-table for "full, democratic, internal self-government." It argued that the prosperity of such cities as Hongkong historically declined if privileged or foreign rule were perpetuated; that local patriotism should be developed as the only true way to face future emergencies; and that a local civic sense should be encouraged in order to overcome corruption.
The Morning Post at once penned a blistering attack (without having published the UNA statement in the first place, though it subsequently repaired this omission). The committee published its findings early in 1961. These were that complete independence was "impracticable” but that “a wholly elected Legislative Council . . . with universal adult franchise for settled residents" (defined as over 21 with 7 years residence) was the ultimate goal. For the sake of goodwill a time limit should be set for this. The Urban Council should be disbanded, and elected local councils set up for the rural and urban areas: some Legislative Council members should be elected by these local councillors to begin with. When the Legislative Council was fully elected (by direct constituencies) it could then elect an executive Cabinet. Minor points included the codification of the laws and no deportation after three years' residence.
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
There was surprisingly little public debate over these proposals partly, no doubt, because the other reformers' hearts were set on expanding the Urban Council, not dis- mantling it, and partly because the proposals had a decidedly academic flavour (as Mr. Cheong-leen remarked in a public letter, where would the kaifongs fit in?). Some embarrass- ment was caused by an apparently premature publication of the report, requiring the public dissociation from it of certain UNA officers not members of the self-government study
group.
Support for Moderates
Throughout this period of early 1959 to date the corres- pondence in the three English newspapers was considerable. The Chinese press, on the whole, treated the question with caution, but there was much support for the moderate re- formers' position. The right-wing Sing Tao Jih Pao reported on October 29, 1960, that ci 100 prominent Chinese residents questioned 55 favoured the status quo, 35 supported limited changes and only 5 opted for independence.
The principal argument against change was best put by Mr. K. A. Watson, the auctioneer, in a letter to the Morning Post on September 19, 1960. “(N)either the Mainland nor Taiwan would tolerate an independent Third China," he there suggested. "Universal suffrage would not mean a polite contest between the gentle liberals of the Reform Club and the Civic Association. It would mean a fight to the death between highly organised Nationalist and Communist parties, heavily subsidised from abroad, neither of whom would have any desire to preserve Hongkong as an indepen- dent state..
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The reformers' reply was to argue that for Peking Hong- kong was the 'goose that lays the golden eggs'; that there was no question of independence in foreign affairs; that the
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