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CONFIDENTIAL
It has always been realised that the development of local
government in Hong Kong must be approached with great
caution and there is a marked divergence of opinion on the
subject in the Colony. Indeed, when the Minister of State
visited Hong Kong in October, 1967, he agreed that it would
be unwise to proceed with the Working Party's full proposals
in the foreseeable future.
3.
The Governor has recently informed us that he is hoping
to be able to put proposals before Executive Council soon
for a degree of modernisation of the urban council and some
extension of its functions. These proposals represent an
intermediate step short of those recommended in the Working
Party's report. The Gove mor would, however, prefer any
reference at this stage to these proposals to be only in
the most general terms. His reasons for this are that local
goverament can only marginally be considered to form part
of the Hong Kong "political structure"; the proposals have
not yet been put to his Executive Council; and it would be
discourteous for Executive Council to be made aware of them
for the first time through statements in Parliament.
4. The Hong Kong Government is well aware of the
difficulties, in the absence of an elected element in the
Councils of the Central Government, of maintaining contact
between the Government and residents in the urban areas.
They accordingly introduced, at the beginning of this year,
a scheme of "City District Officers" in Hong Kong Island and
Kowloon, These District Officers will be expected to provide
a two-way channel of communication between the people and
the Government: they will assess the impact of Government
policies on the people of their districts and will undertake
a number of simple services, such as mediation in labour
disputes. Experience obtained from the operation of the
scheme may assist in the development of local authorities
in due course. A brief description of the scheme was given
by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Mr.Whitlock)
on 12th March, 1968, in reply to a question by Mr. Anthony
Royle.