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CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
GRIEVANCES
No administration is likely to claim that it functions so well that injustices do not concur. In Hong Kong several channels exist for the examination of complaints by members of the public of maladministration. Probably the most commonly used channel is an appeal or complaint to the department concerned, which will ensure a review, at a higher level, of the decision taken. Another method is a letter to the Governor or the Colonial Secretary, which will also ensure that the matter is reconsidered. Complaints are also dealt with by the office run by unofficial members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, commonly referred to as the UMELCO office, and by members of the Urban Council, who have a ward system through which the urban councillors receive complaints from members of the public and bring them to the attention of the appropriate government department or raise them formally in the Urban Council.
City District Officers and District Officers in the New Territories also receive complaints. The absence of statutory powers of investigation is offset by a lack of restriction on the type of complaint they can receive and investigate; their experience and the close relationship that they maintain with other government departments enable them to deal effectively with many grievances.
PUBLIC SERVICE
The Public Service provides the staff for all government depart- ments, sub-departments and other units of the administration, and on April 1, 1969 the total number of posts in the Public Service (or its establishment, as it is generally called) was 77,609.
This indicates that about one person in every 50 in Hong Kong is employed by the Government. There is a large proportion of labouring staff, and nearly 32,600 of the total establishment of the Public Service are labourers, semi-skilled labourers or artisans of one kind or another. The Public Service of the Hong Kong Govern- ment is somewhat unusual in that it includes the staff for certain activities which in other territories and administrations are carried out by people who do not belong to the Civil Service. For example, in other territories staff for hospitals, public works and utilities,