Page 186
Page 186 However, the plain truth is that on present evidence, it would be impossible to introduce such a system without undermining the whole basis of the status quo with China on which a long-term strategy for the future of the Colony rests. There is, as far as we can tell, no genuinely popular movement for an elective system and if there were so there are plenty of outlets in the free press to make this manifest. We believe that the absence of such a movement may derive in part from the population's traditional Chinese indifference to, and incomprehension of, democratic process on the European model; but equally
we believe there is an instinctive understanding of the probable Peking reaction to its introduction.
40.
Judged in this light, the Governor's past programme for mobilising grass-roots opinion and future plans for bringing this to bear on the processes of Government appears to be exactly what is required by local circumstances. It must, however, be. remembered that attitudes in Peking are not necessarily irrevocably fixed: recent difficulties with Peking over the election of a pro-Taiwan member of the Urban Council (a body of very limited powers) suggests that little can be expected to change in the near future; but it will be interesting to see whether the plans for holding some sort of limited elections in Macao come to fruition and whether this has any lessons for the very different circumstances of
Hong Kong.
41. If there is a remediable deficiency in the institutional framework of government, it would appear to lie in the evident reluctance to consider appointments of members of the independent trade unions to the Legislative Council in the near future.
The International Committees of the TUC and the
National Executive Committee of the Labour Party have pressed hard for such appointments on the grounds that this would allow the influence of organised labour to come to bear on the government process.
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7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
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