K.271
A copy of beef for 14° Payle's visit
should come on
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(his file when it
is available
6.10.20
Mr. Gaminara
Reference..
17
I had two longish sessions with members of the Urban (District) Council. At the first, they took me through
their proposals (the 1966 Report as well as the 1969 Report) and endeavoured to convince me that they had had a raw deal from the Government. They gave me copies of the two Reports which I read carefully and the scope of their proposals is clearly unacceptable. Their main complaint was, however, that they had not been given an answer from the Governor. I mentioned this to the Governor and he agreed that the Government were at fault here.
2. At the second meeting they spent their time talking about the implications for Hong Kong of our entry into the Common Market and the issue of Chinese being recognised as an official language.
3. It was clear throughout the two discussions that they were by no means united in their views (in fact there were almost as many views as there were members present). Nevertheless they have some good ideas and I have no doubt at all that the Urban Council has an important part to play in Hong Kong.
4. I had a talk with Mr. Alexander, the Director of the Urban Services Department, and he explained that about ten years ago the Urban (District) Council were given much latitude in debate and that the Councillors started concerning themselves with many questions which are of no concern to them. This annoyed the unofficial members of the Executive and Legislative Councils and Mr. Alexander thought that the Council had still not made up the ground it lost then. Mr. Alexander also told me that he thought the proposals for local government in the immediate future would involve giving the Council a measure of autonomy in financial affairs (a portion of the rates would probably be placed under their control), that official members would probably be withdrawn from the Council which would have a larger elected element and might be given authority to elect its own Chairman. added, however, that he thought it unlikely that the Council's functions would be much extended beyond those they already have. Finally, Mr. Alexander told me that the delay in recent months in the production of new plans for local government has been caused by the financial section of the Colonial Secretariat who had had the papers since last April.
21 September, 1970
En
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(E. O. Laird)
Hong Kong Department
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