TNAG-1719-FCO40-2399-Hong-Kong-1987-Review-of-Representative-Government-1988 — Page 85

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These reforms may seem modest to those who have been brought up in the Westminster tradition or who do not know Hong Kong; but they represent major change here. It is worth looking back at the history of the constitutional reform debate in Hong Kong to understand

their significance.

The beginnings

4.

Hong Kong's first taste of elected representation came in 1888 with the introduction of two elected members to a Sanitary Board whose duties were confined to issues of public health and sanitation. By 1936 the Board had taken on a few more duties and had been renamed the Urban Council. But it still had only two elected members.

5.

The first initiative for more ambitious reform came after the Second World War, as part of a general post-war policy towards colonies. Sir Mark Young returned in May 1946 to resume a governorship that had been interrupted by the Japanese. He immediately

announced proposals (known as the 'Young Plan') to hand over a wide range of internal administrative functions to a new Municipal Council, with a directly elected majority and financial autonomy. The Legislative Council was also to have two indirectly elected members. These proposals met with virtually no public support in Hong Kong (despite attempts by both Young and his successor, Sir Alexander Grantham, to encourage interest). Indeed, there was strong opposition from Legislative Councillors, who feared that the new Municipal Council would inevitably become more authoritative than they were. They counter proposed, in 1949, that their own Council should be reformed, with an elected majority.

6.

Consideration of these various ideas of reform in the late 1940s was quickly overshadowed by the Communist victories in China and a massive influx of refugees from the mainland. These upheavals put the very survival of Hong Kong in doubt. Constitutional reform appeared to be of secondary importance. Eventually, in 1952, at the request of the unofficial members of his Executive and Legislative Councils, Grantham asked the Colonial Office to drop the whole idea of constitutional reform. According to his own account, the Secretary of State readily agreed.

7.

Grantham, in his memoirs, described the "difficulties and dangers" of constitutional reform in Hong Kong as:

(a)

the fact that Hong Kong could never become independent;

/(b)

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