CONFIDENTIAL
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4.
The Governor said that the local advisory system was most advanced in the New Territories, where the District Advisory Boards were being developed in the New Towns.
The re was in fact some elected element in these Boards in that the Chairmen of the Rural Committees (who were elected by heads of household) were ex officio members of the Advisory Boards. Otherwise the members were appointed. In the urban areas con- sultation was achieved mainly through Mutual Aid Committees but he was using Kwun Tong as an area for a pilot scheme, of which the details were not yet worked out, to improve con- sultation.
5.
The Governor pointed out that the problem was that most people wanted a say in how local affairs which directly affected them were planned, but did not want the responsibility for carrying them out. He certainly did not rule out intro- ducing an electoral element gradually into the bodies which the Minister had mentioned, but two further difficulties were:
a)
b)
the danger of moving too fast, thus raising expectations and leading to demands for further action at the higher level, which would have to be rejected;
the very different stages of development in each area. In the New Territories, for instance, Tsuen Wan was well ahead of Sha Tin. It was only really practicable to introduce major political changes (which would in any case require legisla- tion) as each area was settled and had gone some way in economic and social development.
Urban Council
6.
The Governor asked whether the Minister agreed that there should be no electoral concessions in URBCO. Mr Blaker said that this might depend on the effect of changes lower down at the local level. He had his own doubts about the effectiveness of URBCO - indeed if we were starting from scratch we would almost certainly not have devised such a body. He was not thinking of giving more powers to the Urban Council - he recognised that questions such as police and housing must be centrally directed. The basic question was whether URBCO should continue.
7.
The Governor pointed out the difficulty of abolishing or radically changing URBCO. It had certain statutory powers. He had in his speech to LEGCO been careful to stipulate that these powers would not be affected by the experiments which were being made in communication in urban areas. Moreover,
/URBCO
CONFIDENTIAL