CONFIDENTIAL
(3)
The value of the City District Officer scheme as a link
between Government and the man in the street is that they
don't enforce the law. If they were given such authority,
the value of their work would be destroyed.
(iii) Public Assistance Scheme.
Mr. Laird's note answers your enquiry about the "delay".
The scheme has now been accepted by Executive Council and
(in principle) by the Finance Committee of Legislative
Council.
There are therefore no policy decisions still
to be taken. It is a matter of working out the administra-
tive details and on that Hong Kong has asked for assistance
from the U.K. Government. This assistance is likely to be
available.
There is nothing further that we can do
W
except
to be sure that Hong Kong don't "slip" in putting in their
formal application for assistance or the O.D.M. and ourselves
"slip" in processing it.
Action
I suggest that:
(i)
(ii)
We let the Governor know of Mr. Cheong-Leen's call on you
and send him a copy of the memorandum, but simply say that
you listened to what Mr. Cheong-Leen had to say and that the
matters in the memorandum are the subject of separate
correspondence which was already in hand.
on Local Government, we reply to the Governor's telegram
broadly on the lines of para. 5(i) of this minute,but ask
the Governor to get on with his detailed proposals and let
us have them before he submits them to Executive Council.
/(iii)...
CONFIDENTIAL