The 1952 Hong Kong Urban Council election was held on 30 May 1952 for the two elected seats of the

Urban Council of Hong Kong The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

. It was the first Urban Council election since the end of the

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce ...

, the previous election having been held in 1940. Barrister Brook Bernacchi of the

Reform Club of Hong Kong The Reform Club of Hong Kong was one of the oldest political organisations in Hong Kong, existing from 1949 until the mid-1990s. Established by expatriates who were concerned about the Young Plan (Hong Kong), Young Plan proposed by Governor of ...

and

William Louey William Sui-tak Louey (; 7 July 1909 – 9 December 1962) was a Hong Kong businessman and the founder and Chief Manager of the Kowloon Motor Bus Company. Early life and career Louey was born in Melbourne on 7 July 1909 to the son of a Chinese Au ...

, chief manager of

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes. It is a subsidiary of Transport International. ...

won the two seats.

Overview

It was the first Urban Council election after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Prior to the election, the former Governor Sir Mark Aitchison Young suggested a further constitutional reform by a new elected Municipal body replacing the Urban Council. The

Young Plan The Young Plan was a program for settling Germany's World War I reparations. It was written in August 1929 and formally adopted in 1930. It was presented by the committee headed (1929–30) by American industrialist Owen D. Young, founder and for ...

was strongly opposed by the conservatives and the then Governor Sir

Alexander Grantham Sir Alexander William George Herder Grantham, GCMG (; 15 March 1899 – 4 October 1978) was a British colonial administrator who governed Hong Kong and Fiji. Early life, colonial administration career Grantham was born on 15 March 1899 an ...

. At the end, the Governor restored the election for two seats in the Urban Council which had existed before the war after the Young Plan was shelved. The polling station was held at the Murray Parade Ground. Some 3,368 men cast ballots, about one-third of the 9,700 registered voters, lower than expectations. The ''China Mail'' said it could "scarcely be regarded as a convincing sign that the Colony is desperately anxious to enjoy extended franchise." Brook Bernacchi of the

and

of the Kowloon Residents' Association, chief manager of

, were elected out of nine candidates. Pro-

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

barrister Percy Chen, son of former Foreign Minister of the Republic of China

Eugene Chen Eugene Chen or Chen Youren (; July 2, 1878, San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago – 20 May 1944, Shanghai), known in his youth as Eugene Bernard Achan, was a Chinese Trinidadian lawyer who in the 1920s became Chinese foreign minister. He was know ...

, was on the ballot. He urged voters to treat the election as a referendum to press London for a further constitutional reform promised by Young. He ranked sixth of the nine candidates, getting 461 votes. The other Reform Club candidate Woo Pak-chuen lost the race by only 38 votes.

Results

Citations

References

* Pepper, Suzanne (2008). ''Keeping Democracy at Bay:Hong Kong and the Challenge of Chinese Political Reform''. Rowman & Littlefield. {{Hong Kong elections

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 Delta i ...

1952 in Hong Kong Urban May 1952 events in Asia 1952 elections in the British Empire