CO_1030_1459_HONG_KONG_CONSTITUTIONAL_DEVELOPMENT_1963_1965 — Page 94

香港工黨

Page 94 of

04/28

• THE LABOUR PARTY OF HONG KONG

CHAIRMAN:

MR. TANG HON TSAI

VICE-CHAIRMAN.

MR. K. HOPKIN-JENKINS

HON. SECRETARY:

MR. J. W. Y. CHAN

主席:

**

# t 生

副主席:

曾 健 -J

£

秘書:

陳永 源 先生

香港干諾道中六十四至六十五绒 香港中華廠商聯合會大廈三〇三室 303 C. M. A. BUILDING.

64-65 CONNAUGHT ROAD, C. HONG KONG

TEL.

4 32 218

44182 1

TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS

"SOLITANG"

Arthur George Bottomley Esq., M. P.,

Commonwealth Relations Office,

Downing Street, S. W. 1,

29th June, 1965.

Whitehall,

London,

England.

Dear Mr. Bottomley,

During your visit to Hong Kong in December, 1963, you said in the presence of the undersigned that you had been far from satisfied with

the conditions of the common people in this Colony, and that you intended

to ameliorate those conditions. The Labour Party of Hong Kong now asks

you "How and when are you going to make a start?"

The Hong Kong Labour Party believes that there are sufficient

indications of a general desire among the people for some form of

democracy, to warrant your Government's taking some positive action along

these lines. Why is your Government not acting? Why are you yourself

not taking a hand, in line with your public utterances, in the develop-

ment of democracy in Hong Kong?

You said, in a press conference on your departure from Hong Kong that "The (British) Labour Party believes in the right to self-determina- !

tion of any people as soon as they want to govern themselves. This

applies to Hong Kong just the same as to any other colonial territory."

Do you not now feel that the wishes of the responsible inhabi-

tants of this Colony (we cannot call them citizens) for some form of democratic representation have been expressed in the press, in petitions

to the Governor, on radio and in meetings of recognised political and

social organisations in sufficient degree to warrant the granting of

some measure of elective representation in the Colony's only legislative

body, the Legislative Council?

Do you honestly believe that representation on a consultative Urban Council (without legislative power) with authority to discuss only such matters as street-cleaning, drainage and playgrounds, which is the only form of elective representation the people of Hong Kong at present enjoy, can in anyway be termed a measure of self-government?

You wrote in an article in the Asia Magazine of 5th April, 1964

that you intended to carry on where the previous Labour Government had

left off. You said that the previous Labour Government had "set in train

the process of ending the British Empire and rule over subject peoples" Page 94f34hat it had "set in motion the demise of colonialite 94 of 344t extent

has your new Labour Government set in motion the demise of colonialism