}
- 7
connection with the Secretariat and Treasury arises with the
adjustment from time to time of Regulations appertaining to
Government servants. To obviate this it might be in the
189
interests of Government to constitute an association representing
the Civil Service as a whole, whose views could be ascertained
in advanco, and which would be available to the Government on
any matters relative to the conditions of service.
body would of course be advisory.
21.
Such a
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS. In their final paragraph
of their report on the Public Works Department the
Commissioners stressed the point that the problems of Hong Kong
were largely municipal in nature. This is particularly truc
as regards the Public Works Department. The head of this
department should therefore be an officer trained on modern
lines, so as to be fully conversant with municipal engineering
and administration problems. Experience in other Crown
Colonies, where conditions are quite different from those in
Hong Kong, is of little uso; for such municipalities as there
were in the Colonial Empire have been handed over to Councils.
The Commissioners therefore recommend that, (subject to what
they state below regarding Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Henderson),
on the retirement of the present Director, an effort be made
to secure for the post an officer who has had such training
as indicated above, either at home or in a large eastern city
such as Bombay, Singapore or Shanghai. The Commissioners
however recognize that in the case of Mr. H.W. Carpenter, O.B.E.
Assistant Director of Public Works, and Mr. R.M. Henderson,
Assistant Director of Public Works, Waterworks, the Colony
possesses officers of such experience and ability as to warrant their appointment to the highest administrative posts of the
do partment.
22.