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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-I think the Management Committee is as well informed as I am.
MR. BERNACCHI:-Presumably, and again I ask in the form of a question, any gap in the timing would almost automatically be special circumstances entitling the mobile clinic to registration for another year or six months?
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF MEDICAL AND HEALTH SERVICES:-I would not like to say that. I am afraid I cannot answer that.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-In other words, the Vice-Chairman does not want to commit himself.
(4) MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:-
Can the Chairman advise:
(a) Whether copies of the Urban Council's Ad Hoc Committee's report on the Future Scope and Operation of the Urban Council have been made available to the Commonwealth Secretary, Mr. Herbert BOWDEN?
(b) Whether steps can be taken to circulate copies of the Chinese translation of this Report to Kaifong Associations, and other interested groups in Hong Kong?
THE CHAIRMAN, URBAN COUNCIL replied as follows:
The answer to the first part of the question is yes.
The answer to the second part of the question is also yes, and action is being taken to send copies of the Chinese version of the Report to the Kaifong Associations.
MR. BERNACCHI:-What about other interested groups?
CHAIRMAN:-Sir, the only other interested groups that I am aware of are those with whom the Committee had correspondence during the time it was sitting, and these you may find in the appendices to the Report. If there are other interested quarters or parties who wish to have the Report in Chinese, I shall be glad to supply it, provided I am given their names and addresses.
MR. BERNACCHI:-For instance, Mr. Chairman, the Heung Yee Kuk.
CHAIRMAN:-Sir, I am in ignorance at the moment whether the Heung Yee Kuk has had a copy or not, but I will certainly send them copies.
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DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, do you mean by the answer you gave Mr. BERNACCHI that you have sent copies to everybody who was consulted and whose names appear in the Appendix of the Report?
CHAIRMAN:-Well, Dr. BELL, I would not say specifically, but I hope they were included. The English version has had a very wide distribution. Over 470 copies have been sent to people or groups concerned both in Hong Kong and abroad.
DR. BELL:-Mr. Chairman, could you please find out if you have sent copies to all these people, because if you will permit me to say from memory, many of them refused to answer until they knew a little bit more about it. There were only about three or four organizations that dared to stick their necks out and answer anything in connection with local Government reform. I think it would be very suitable if a Chinese and an English copy of the Report were sent to these organizations. They should be asked to study them and give a report on them. You might even perhaps, Mr. Chairman, want to send a copy of the official Working Party Report to them so that they can compare the two.
CHAIRMAN:-Dr. BELL, I have now had a note from the Secretary of the Council which informs me that these associations and groups of people, correspondence with whom occurs in the Appendices of the Report, did in fact receive the English version. I will send them a Chinese version with pleasure.
DR. BELL:-Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-That clarifies the point which I was about to ask, but which Dr. BELL very kindly asked. Now, Mr. Chairman, do you know the date on which the Urban Council's Report was sent to the Secretary of State, Mr. Herbert BOWDEN?
CHAIRMAN:-Yes, Sir, I do; it was sent on the 13th October last year.
MR. CHEONG-LEEN:-Now, Mr. Chairman, it might have been that he does not recall having received it, because in his reply to a question raised by Mr. James JOHNSON in the House of Commons he only made reference to the Government Working Party's Report, and he also said that he visited Hong Kong and he met with members of the Government, both Official and Unofficial, to learn something at first hand of the situation in Hong Kong, but probably through a lapse of memory he forgot the members of the Urban Council. Now, Mr. Chairman, since he made no reference to the Ad Hoc Committee's Report, can steps be taken to have another copy of our Report sent to him to refresh his memory?
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