THE PAPER CHASE
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Hong Kong must have been defeated by lack of storage space and of staff to cope.
Now that the P.R.O. has been established, such reduction as there has been of government's archival resources should come to an end. How soon it does so will depend on how rapidly and effectively the P.R.O. is enabled to develop its services. Departments have already been instructed that in future no records are to be destroyed without P.R.O. sanction; but this will become a dead letter if we fail to give them prompt assistance in the appraisal of their records and ready accommodation for those which are marked for permanent retention.
I believe that much will depend on our ability to develop efficient intermediate records services. The establishment of institutions which relieve departments of the burden of accommodating and administering great masses of non-current records would go far to obviate premature or unauthorised destruction of them.
In due course it will be appropriate to enact a Public Records Ordinance to provide a legal basis for the P.R.O. and its activities and to settle its relations with other government offices and the public. The character of this legislation, when it is passed, will be important in determining the future development of the Office and the effectiveness of its operations.