The Constitutional Reform Association of Hong Kong was a political group formed by expatriate British community striving for constitutional reform in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in the late 1910s.

History

It was first launched in a well-attended meeting at the Theatre Royal on 3 May 1917 by the

Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce (HKGCC; ) was founded on 29 May 1861, and is the oldest and one of the largest business organizations in Hong Kong. It has around 4,000 corporate members, who combined employ around one-third of Hong Kon ...

. It submitted a proposal of introducing unofficial majority in the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong ...

to the

House of Commons of the United Kingdom The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 me ...

through member of parliament Colonel John Ward but was rejected by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...

. On 9 January 1919, a resolution was passed at its public meeting for an unofficial majority in the Legislative Council, and for seven members elected, one each by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, the Justices of Peace, the

Chinese Chamber of Commerce Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

and four (one Portuguese and three British) by British subjects on the jurors list. Governor

Reginald Stubbs Sir Reginald Edward Stubbs (; 13 October 1876 – 7 December 1947) was a British colonial governor, who was once the Governor of Hong Kong. He caused controversy while Governor of Ceylon over the Bracegirdle Incident. Early life and educati ...

commented the Association in 1920 as a "farcical body", when the Association consisted of a few dozen persons, most of whom took no part in the proceedings and appeared to be moribund. By October 1923, the Constitutional Reform Association ceased to exist.

References

{{Hong Kong political parties Politics of Hong Kong Political organisations based in Hong Kong 1917 establishments in Hong Kong 1923 disestablishments in Hong Kong Political parties established in 1917