11
23.
Thirdly, the Secretary for Home Affairs, as a result of passing over responsibility for environmental
affairs to the new Secretary for Health and Welfare, will
be able to devote more attention to some of his other
responsibilities, particularly those relating to information and public relations and the monitoring of
public opinion. He will also be able to pay more attention to identifying people of the right calibre and experience to man our ever developing network of advisory boards and committees.
24.
Fourthly, the Secretary for City and New Territories Administration will be re-titled Secretary for District
Administration, in order to be consistent with the recent
standardisation of the titles of district staff throughout
the urban areas and the New Territories, but his schedule
of responsibilities will remain unchanged. His constant pre-occupation will, of course, be the nurturing of the
district board system and he, together with the Secretary
for Home Affairs, will be concerned with resolving any
immediate interface problems which may arise between district
boards and the various subject-oriented advisory boards and
committees, or between the Urban Council and the district
boards. In the longer term, he will eventually be
concerned with any modifications to the District Administration
Scheme which may be indicated by experience and longer term interface problems.
25.
Finally, there is now an obvious case for having
a multi-purpose presence in the United States and Europe
as well as in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, it has been
decided to expand, and upgrade the level of, our representation in the United States by opening a new office in New York.
The officer in charge will be known as the Hong Kong Trade
Commissioner in the United States. His responsibilities
will include keeping under review commercial and economic
developments in the United States, which may affect Hong Kong's interests, in concert with the Counsellor (Hong Kong
/Commercial.
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