TNAG-1599-FCO40-2192-Hong-Kong-1987-Review-of-Representative-Government-1987 — Page 126

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only 1/6 of a chance was given to the

respondents

to say that

direct elections should be introduced in 1988, that is, if they could understand that question.

Sir, let me say in this Council loud and clear that

it will be totally unfair for anybody to seek to place any

reliance on the results of these 2 public opinion surveys

conducted by A GB McNair HK Ltd. in so far as the all important

question of whether or not direct elections should be

introduced in 1988 is concerned. I do not accept the survey results not because they were contrary to my belief, but simply.

because they were based on

Questionnaire which has been

that

all.

faulted in so many ways. For how else can we explain the fact

other public opinion surveys conducted by other

professional survey companies throughout the relevant period

have arrived at a totally different result, namely, that the

supporters for the introduction of direct elections in 1988

have consistently out-numbered the opponents in the proportion

of approximately 2 to 1? The reason is obvious, these other

survey companies had not copied their questions from the

summary of the Green Paper, but had adopted a much simplier and

clearer questionnaire on this most important issue.

Sir, after So much time, effort and money had been

put into this political review, many people feel let down by

the two survey results,

perhaps because they had put too much

T