FCO_49_622_PLANNING_PAPER_ON_HONG_KONG_1976 — Page 181

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This policy, we would judge, would attract widespread public support and considerably ease the problem of making further progress towards a more readily defensible urban society. Possible objections

are:

(a) that although right in principle the execution of these plans may not be rapid enough to contain the disquiet felt in political circles here at the absence of properly representative institutions;

(b) that a more responsive and less evidently authoritarian form of government might lead to pressure in the Colony for an elective system; and

(c) that the Government evolved by these methods may find itself at odds with HMG when the time comes to seek a solution of the Hong Kong problem with the

Chinese.

31.

To these may be answered:

(a) that the execution of these plans must necessarily take into account both the political pressures here and the political realities in Hong Kong. If right in principle, the question of timing is one which can be resolved with mutual consultation;

(b) that pressure for greater public

participation in government will inevitably increase with the new generation which has grown up in very different circumstances than their immigrant parents. It is surely far better to respond to this pressure by

a system we believe acceptable to China than seeking to bottle it up under the colonial system of the past; and

(c) that any negotiation with the Chinese must of necessity be done in great secrecy and over the heads of the Hong Kong Government which in any case has no locus standi in the matter. The character of

that Government cannot affect the issue and if the

result of the negotiation with China were unpopular with Hong Kong it would be with the population as a whole, nogesh certain memberpage of 203

Government.

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/Possible

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7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3

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