which the unofficial representatives on the Councils are selected. They see the advantages of making modest changes now to meet this current of feeling.
There are further arguments.
3.
Insofar as any changes we make are designed to improve the machinery of government rather than to respond to theoretical calls for constitutional reform, there is a need, as the Colony continues to grow in size and pros- perity, to strengthen our means of assessing public opinion and to keep Government in touch with the public. Furthermore, the Unofficial Members have expressed a wish to increase the scope and intensity of their individual activities in the public interest and, in particular, their own contacts with the general public. This must place a further heavy burden on their time and effort. Apart from a need for re-inforcement in numbers to share this burden, there is an increasing demand for their services outside the Colony on representative missions abroad.
4.
I am satisfied, therefore, that I should now propose a moderate increase in the number of unofficial nominations. We must accept that there will be those who will attempt to interpret any change of this nature as a "constitutional advance", but in the light of all the other considerations, I do not think that this objection justifies our standing still. A pragmatic argument in support of change which one cannot ignore is that, in these matters, it becomes increasingly difficult to stand still as time goes by.
5.
We considered whether it was desirable to introduce changes in the composition of both the Legislative and the Executive Councils. It is the unanimous opinion of my advisers, with which I fully concur, that we should concentrate upon changes in the Council where the deliberations take place in public. I am not, therefore, recommending any changes in the composition of the Executive Council.
6.
In examining the arguments for and against increases in the Legislative Council I have looked again at the proposal that I should appoint to that body a number of elected members of the Urban Council. I have come to the conclusion, however, and my advisers agree, that, in the present circumstances of Hong Kong, it would be undesirable to carry the elective principle, even in this more remote form, into the Legislative Council. Adoption of the proposal would lead, in due course, to the Urban Council elections being regarded as elections to the Legislative Council. At the same time, however, I would not wish to debar an elected member of the Urban Council from nomination to the superior Council in his own right and on merit, provided that these were obviously established. This would preserve, while at the same time it would not limit, the Governor's discretion to nominate the best men available from any section of the community, including the elected members of the Urban Council.
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17. As
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Yes
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