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realities in Hong Kong. If right in principle, the question of timing is one which can be resolved through mutual consultation.
It is surely
(b) pressure for greater public participation in Government may increase with the new generation which has grown up in very different circumstances than their immigrant parents. better to provide channels for such participation by those who want it, by a system we believe acceptable to China, than by seeking
to bottle it up;
(c) avoidance of these potentially serious hazards will depend on finding suitable personalities for membership of the Council. These must be found from new sources, but care must be taken to avoid appointing members susceptible to communist manipulation at a time when H.M. Government's negotiations could be prejudiced by the wrong sort of words or actions in Legislative Council.
18. Paragraph 17(a) suggests that mutual adjustment will be necessary to take account of political realities here and the situation in Hong Kong. One such example is of current concern. The International Committees of the TUC and the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party have pressed hard for the appointment of someone drawn from the independent (i.e. non-Communist, non-KMT) unions to the Legislative Council in June. the grounds that such an appointee could bring wage earners' views to bear on the government process.
Mmor
This is on
19. In his meetings with both Committees the Governor has been unable to convince them of the undesirability of appointing
all relative members of what are indeed. small and unrepresentative unions to the Council. This is consistent with his general view that LegCo members need to be people with wide experience of community affairs and of high quality since the Council has in effect, certain executive functions; works very closely with the official side of the Government on most matters relating to the Colony's affairs; and therefore has much greater access to confidential
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