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CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION
recruited in the near future will take over, inter alia, these undefended divorce cases in the District Court.
With regard to criminal cases, the Legal Aid in Criminal Cases (Amendment) Rules 1972 came into operation on September 1, 1972 and they enable legal aid to be granted to a person on whom a sentence has been passed and whose sentence the Attorney General applies to the Full Court to review. Since then, legal aid has been granted to several persons in this type of case.
Urban Council
The Urban Council consists of a maximum of 26 members, six ex officio, 10 elected unofficial members and not more than 10 unofficial members appointed by the Governor. The term of office of an unofficial member (which includes both elected and appointed members) is four years. Of the ex officio members, the chairman (who is appointed by the Governor) is the Director of the Urban Services Department, while the vice-chairman is the 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, but most of its business is conducted by eight 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 Urban Council are sanitation and hygiene, licens- ing 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 advertising signs, management of the City Hall and public libraries, management of government car parks and the control and maintenance of places of public recrea- tion, such as bathing beaches, swimming pools, tennis courts, squash courts and parks and playgrounds in the urban areas. The 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 management, by the Resettlement Department.
On October 13, 1971, 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 which will come into effect on April 1, 1973. These include a substantial degree of financial autonomy, the removal of all official members and an increase in the number of unofficial members.
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
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