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children. This service was never intended to take the form of a comprehensive medical service similar to the State medicine existing in the United Kingdom. Hong Kong is not in a position to follow this system because of the lack of facilities and medical personnel; besides, in Great Britain, State medicine is not a complete success. The school medical service is intended to provide a limited service. Students at school are highly susceptible to diseases of childhood and it is therefore very important that students should constantly be under the care of a doctor who not only provides the necessary treatment, but is also in a position to give advice to the parents about specialist treatment in case of any developmental error or some other diseases peculiar to childhood. This service is more like a health service rather than a medical service. It will take stages to extend to cover other aspects but until this service receives more popularity and has more participants, there is no reason to suppress the extension of other facilities. The Education Department appears to have overlooked the importance of this service. The stress laid on the schools by the Education Department and the Government is completely insufficient. There must be more vigorous campaigns organized to sell the scheme to the schools in general and the parents in particular.
Mr. Chairman, I have much pleasure to support the motion before the Council. (Applause).
MRS. ELLEN LI SHU-PUI:--Mr. Chairman, this year, as usual, I leave the world-shattering and history making proposals of reforms to those of my colleagues who are experts in this field. This afternoon, I will only touch upon a very few practical suggestions.
During my term of service in this Council, I have been criticized now and again for not taking the opportunities to be more "spectacular" by making bold statements at public meetings or in the Press. For one thing, Chinese women never talk and do not usually wish to be "spectacular" in public. Personally, I have shied away from such attempts, because I feel that any statement made in the English language in order to be understood by the English speaking public tends to cater to European conception and mentality, but they do not usually represent Chinese views and reactions on the issue. For example, Chinese people's reactions to the two important issues in recent weeks, namely, the Public Orders Bill and the Devaluation decisions were violently different to that of the English speaking community, including some of our political party leaders. I do my humble share of Council work at committee levels and in my own very small way try to reach as many people as possible by talking to them in their language, on their level as a housewife about current affairs, in a way they can understand, through usually the audio medium of the radio when called upon to do so.
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I believe we all have a duty to fill this vacuum created by the barrier of language by explaining things to the people in a way they can understand, putting before them facts and figures as to what has been done and what more can be done, and what are the difficulties and problems involved. It is not in their best interest to encourage them to always expect something for nothing, to feel that the society owes them everything, without impressing upon them at the same time their responsibility and civic duties to the society. To give them hope, confidence and sense of security is our duty, but to feed them with discontent and pipe dreams is to lead them to unhappiness and is a very dangerous pastime. My friend next to me has talked exhaustively on bridges and tunnels, and I will now add my remarks on bridges and vacuums.
I think there is a definite break-down of communications between the administration and the people, and between the Council and the people as well. By this I mean the work of the Council is not usually understood by the people. The Council as well as many Government Departments each need a press agent or public relations officer to answer all questions in the Chinese press and to sponsor a daily radio and T.V. programme in Chinese to familiarize the public on the various functions of Government and to explain the whys and wherefors of any decision and to educate the people on their civic responsibility, health problems, and so on and so forth. These men must be of special training to be able to get their ideas across to the public. The impression we get from the radio and television interviews during the last eventful weeks revealed the fact that many persons in responsible positions did not seem able to get their views across too well. In fact, the most clear-cut and convincing explanations I got about the "whys” and "why-nots" of the readjustments of our dollar value did not come from the Government officials nor did they come from expert economists. The might of the pen and the power of audio visual aid as a means of communication cannot be over-emphasized. In the light of experience gained during the past few months I am more convinced than ever that the most effective way to win friends and influence people is through the radio and television.
I feel however that Radio Hong Kong could have been more active and should have been made use of more effectively by the administration for accurate and more frequent reportage. In other countries, busy people rely on the radio broadcasts for their up-to-the-minute news on world events and local happenings. This is not quite the case in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is one of the few places in the world where history is made every so often. Last week we made history by being the only country in the world to devaluate and then re-valuate its money value within 5 days. Last month we resettled one million people in our
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