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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
I must stress that I think it is a wrong approach these days for Government merely to regard appointment to the Urban Council as a sort of testing ground or approval for graduation to those more senior Councils.
Certainly on this Council ladies can and do play an important part in our work. I therefore have much pleasure in seconding the Proposal that His Excellency the Governor be requested to consider the appointment of a woman to the Council on the next occasion.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- Mr. Chairman, there is a certain modesty in Dr. BELL's motion which compels me to give it sympathy and support. You will recall that we recently had a Census and the initial statistics indicated that there were almost as many women as men in Hong Kong. Now Dr. BELL has diffidently proposed that on the appointed side the ratio between the sexes should be no more than 7:1, of course, in favour of the male side. One can really appreciate, Mr. Chairman, the fact that the appointed members may have a certain element of reservation about such a proposal. They have never had the experience of having a woman sitting in on their caucuses. On behalf of the elected bench, I would like to assure the appointed side that we, on the elected bench, have had a lady Councillor sitting in our midst for the past few years and we have benefitted thereby. They may rest assured on that point. In fact, Mr. Chairman, I might say that, having a lady on the elected bench is one of those many advantages, which we have over the appointed side. Whether or not this motion is won or lost, I think is immaterial, but I would like to support Dr. BELL's motion as a member of this Council, because I consider it symbolic of the increasingly significant rôle which women in Hong Kong are beginning to take in public affairs. We have to march with the times and we have to allow our women to be more eloquent on public affairs, if they want to. I also happen to be a proponent of that school, which is willing to take the calculated risk of giving the fair sex a wider scope in expressing their views on public matters, and I do hope, Mr. Chairman, that my colleagues on the appointed side can be persuaded to give their enthusiastic support to Dr. BELL's motion.
MR. Y. K. KAN:- Mr. Chairman, I believe some of my colleagues on this side of the table will reply to certain points specifically raised by other speakers, but subject to that, I wish to announce that the appointed members intend to abstain from voting on this motion.
MR. K. A. WATSON: Mr. Chairman, I personally have no objection whatever to having another lady on this Council or in fact many other ladies, especially if they are of the prowess and debating ability of my friend, Dr. Alison BELL, but I am surprised that she has suggested that in future a lady should be an appointed member. I would have thought that another elected member, in Dr. BELL's opinion,
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would achieve a much greater degree of effectiveness. I was delighted to hear from Dr. LEE that the elected members appear at last to be prepared to admit that the appointed members do play some small useful part in this Council in spite of certain recent suggestions to the Secretary of State. I believe I speak for most of my colleagues when I say that, if we are to have another lady member, we would perhaps prefer to have another elected one, if only in order that she would sit across the table from us and give us two beauties to gaze at instead of one. (Laughter).
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:- May I ask a question in clarification of what Mr. WATSON has said? Does he not consider that it is unfair to the elected members to have no beauties to gaze at across the table. (Laughter).
MR. WATSON:- The Chairman of the Urban Council will decide. (Laughter).
MR. SALES:- Mr. Chairman, the mere fact that Mr. CHEONG-LEEN supports the motion, to me, is enough of an inspiration to speak. I believe that the motion stands on its own merit whether or not it is rewarded with the sympathy of everybody in this Council. It hardly needs Mr. CHEONG-LEEN's 'kiss of death' when he said that it is a calculated risk to have another woman on the Council. (Laughter). I, in fact, would have taken umbrage with Mr. CHEONG-LEEN had I been the proponent of such a motion. Dr. BELL has expressed herself most eloquently and most courteously as she does on every occasion, except when she is addressing herself to her countrymen in Select Committees. I would like to assure Dr. BELL that if the appointed members do not find it necessary to support her motion, it is not because of want of sympathy. It is simply because we consider that this is a matter not for us to suggest but one which requires the exercise of a prerogative on the part of His Excellency the Governor.
We have been most impressed by Dr. BELL's own record of service in this Council. She has in fact joined issue with the best of us and has always come out the better for it, not because of any chivalry on our part, but merely because she has always championed her causes with the greatest commonsense.
I, for one, and if I might presume to speak for Kowloon, assure Dr. BELL that all Kowloon—and that means over two-thirds of the urban population of this Colony—is happy to leave the fate of those two great cities, Kowloon and New Kowloon, in her capable hands. We prefer that the lady member of this Council should be as singularly charming as she, who today makes this flower arrangement pale (Mr. SALES was referring to the flower bowl on the table) by comparison not only with her presence but also with her ability to put across her motion.
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