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found alternative accommodation in the meanwhile, were not allocated sites, and after compensation was paid the squatter patrols were instructed to take action against any further structures that were erected in the streets. None of the people concerned have been given white cards and none have been registered for resettlement. The action to be taken against those who have been resited is now under consideration.
DR. BELL:- May I ask supplementary questions? Is the Chairman aware that the compensation varied from $400 to $800, that these are people who have lived in Hong Kong for ten to twenty years, that many have large families of children and that they find it impossible to get alternative accommodation because landlords refuse to rent accommodation to families with a large number of children?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I certainly was not aware of all that. I know compensation varied, but it was the standard method.
DR. BELL: Will the Chairman, in view of my former supplementary question, allow an extension of time to all these people resited or otherwise in temporary accommodation until the consideration referred to in your answer has been given?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT: We will certainly allow time for those who have been resited, but I am not sure how we can allow time for the others.
DR. BELL: How can you make a differentiation between the two? Some have been granted resites, others have not.
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- I think the only answer I can give to that is that the whole question is under consideration by the Select Committee concerned.
DR. BELL: Can I still press that perhaps those who have not been sited be given an extension of time in their present temporary accommodation?
MR. BERNACCHI:- As a Member of the Select Committee concerned, I would be obliged if we could have before us the various matters Dr. Bell has mentioned.
CHAIRMAN:- I think the whole question-
MR. KAN:- If the matter should be reconsidered by that Select Committee, may I be invited to attend this Select Committee because it was the subject matter of a question raised by me at the last meeting.
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THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- Yes.
DR. BELL: May I also be invited to attend?
THE COMMISSIONER FOR RESETTLEMENT:- Certainly.
MOTIONS.
MR. B. A. BERNACCHI moved:-
"That this Council request the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee to consider the practicability of and, if thought fit, to suggest to this Council the procedure whereby the Chairman of the Urban Council shall consult the Chairman of the appropriate Select Committee, before replying to Questions concerning that Committee's work and responsibilities."
He said: When I first joined the Urban Council, it was, if I might put it this way, very much an "Officials' Show". The Chairman of the Council was Chairman of nearly all Select Committees and those Select Committees that he did not preside over were presided over by one of the other Official Members. Practically all work by the Unofficial Members was done by way of circulating files and the regular public meetings lasted less than five minutes.
The course of years has changed all this. To-day, the majority of the Select Committees have Unofficial Chairmen and even with the streamlining recently introduced we find ourselves not infrequently closeted for hours on end in the Committee rooms of the Council. Unfortunately, the procedure in our public meetings has not always kept pace with these changes.
There certainly was a time in the past when members asking Questions in respect to the work of Select Committees addressed their Question to the Chairman of the particular Select Committee. As I said before, that would usually be an Official Member of Council. This seems to be consistent with Standing Orders, but for some reason which is not entirely clear, although my own recollection is that it was upon legal advice tendered to the Council, this practice was discontinued and in its place the custom grew up for members to address their Questions solely to the Chair. But the Chairman, exercising his powers in this respect under Standing Orders, would frequently invite the Chairman of a particular Select Committee to reply. Although in fairness to the Chair, I must say that this was usually the case of referring a Question to another Official Member who happened to be Chairman of the Select Committee concerned. I might add, an example of which we had this afternoon when several questions were referred to the Commissioner for Resettlement.
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