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CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
Deputy Director of Medical and Health Services in charge of the health division of that department. The other ex officio members are the Secretary for Home Affairs, the Director of Public Works, the Director of Social Welfare and the Commissioner for Resettlement.
The Council meets monthly, though most of its business is conducted by 17 select committees which meet at frequent intervals. Unofficial members of the Council are in the majority on all select committees, and the chairman of each committee is an unofficial member.
The main responsibilities of the Council are sanitation and hygiene, licensing and inspection of food premises and factories, offensive trades, bathhouses and laundries, running of markets and abattoirs, licensing and control of hawkers, management of cemeteries and crematoria, and control of funeral parlours, licensing of advertisement signs, management of the City Hall and public libraries, management of government car parks and the control and maintenance of places of public recreation, such as bathing beaches, swimming pools, tennis courts, squash courts and parks and playgrounds in the urban areas. The Urban Council is also the competent authority for the management of resettlement cottage areas and estates and resettlement factories in the urban areas. Policies and decisions of the Council are carried out by the Urban Services Department and, in the case of resettlement estate manage- ment, by the Resettlement Department.
On October 13, a White Paper was tabled in the Legislative Council and published for general information, outlining proposals for significant changes in the organisation of the Urban Council. These include a substantial degree of financial autonomy, the removal of all official members and an increase in the number of unofficial members, the changes to take effect from April 1, 1973.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
The foreign relations of the Government of Hong Kong are the responsibility of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, but in the sphere of external trade a considerable degree of latitude is in practice permitted to the Hong Kong Government. Hong Kong's dependence on trade makes it necessary for the Hong Kong Government to maintain offices in London, Washington, Geneva and Brussels to maintain and improve commercial relations with other countries.
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