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on other occasions, in almost identical situations, there is a whole lot of objections from police, Fire Brigade and sometimes even from our own Department. In one area the hawkers' shacks, and their goods, are over the whole street making it a large, highly dangerous fire hazardous illegal hawker bazaar, but no one on the ground does anything about it. But in another area even a little extension is dealt with by a seizure of the hawker's goods, in most cases perishable, and the bringing of the hawkers before the court. I have always said either enforce the law or change the law to meet the present circumstances on the ground. In regard to hawking generally, there are thousands of illegal hawkers, hawking merrily throughout the urban areas whilst this Council asks, almost begs the hawkers to get themselves licences. Licences which offer, at present, no protection and often attract a higher penalty because the same hawker if he is licensed and selling goods not covered by his licence is charged with that offence and fined say $20 whereas if he is unlicensed, he is often merely charged with hawking without a licence, and fined say $10. I plead with the Legislative Council to give us our own staff, give us our own finance and then we will do the job.
Many people say that certain officials in the Government have deliberately created the District Officer System as a counter to the influence the Urban Councillors have under the Ward System on the individual citizens of Hong Kong. I have consistently said "no" when that suggestion is put to me. The City District Officer's primary consideration is the organization and handling of community projects in his district, to appreciate the general feeling in the locality, and communicate it to Government, to enlist local support for Government and to advise Government generally on conditions in his district with particular reference to the younger members of our community. It is only as a secondary and subsidiary duty that the C.D.O. handle individual cases, in particular they advise the individual how to make an application to Government, and sometimes make the application on his behalf. If individual cases are delayed they arrange for the hastening of the individual applications and at the other end, they occasionally recommend changes in policies as a result of a large number of unsuccessful individual applications. There is therefore only a slight overlapping with the Ward System where we essentially concentrate on individual citizens and their grievances. In fact, I have constantly recommended that the Ward Councillor and the City District Officer work in close contact so that a system can be worked out where an applicant to the City District Officer can be sent to the Ward Councillor if appropriate, and an applicant to the Ward Councillor that comes in effect with a community problem could be referred to the City District Officer. In fact, I would recommend that the City District Officers give up seeing individual cases other than as an enquiry agency and including making applications for the individuals to Government or advising them as to how to make such an application. Because, when you come to complaints of injustice or the like it must be remembered that a District Officer is a Junior Officer of Government who has no access to files, and the most that he can do is to put up recommendations to his superiors. The answer to the Ward System is files, files and more files because it is only by that way that we can do justice between the individual applicant and the Government machinery. Government is not by any means always wrong, but the individual applicant in those cases does not see where he is wrong. In cases dealing with resettlement, in cases dealing with Urban Services Department, I make a habit of calling for the relevant file, and either I question the department on the decision reached in the file or I explain to the applicant why this decision is the only one that it is possible to take in his case, even if it is against him. If we get the Education Department, the control over urban transport, and the other items which I have already specified, then the Ward System itself will be all that much more effective. That is the true way of bridging the gap between Government and the citizens of Hong Kong. That ought to be done by an Ombudsman, but as we have not yet an Ombudsman System it is done in the Ward Offices.
Mr. Chairman, there are a lot of speakers in these two days and just because I come very near to the beginning I do not want to spoil their thunder. I shall content myself with saying that unless one lives in a day dream, the lessons of last year's riots need to be examined, analysed and corrected because they will happen again in a few years' time. The true basis, the true esteem of the Hong Kong Government needs to be put over to the citizens of Hong Kong, and the citizens of Hong Kong need to feel that they are playing a very much larger part than they do at present in their own Government. Whilst speaking of the riots last year, I would like to take this opportunity to say something on the Essential Service Corps. There has been a lot in the papers recently about possible recommendations to have it disbanded. In my opinion that would be fatal. By and large, in the emergency last year members of the Essential Services were loyal and stayed at their post even though the Essential Services Corps was not, as a Corps, called out. There has been a lot of ill-considered rumours that it was called out and failed to respond I, as a member of the headquarters of the Corps, and I think other members on the Council, who are also members of it, can say definitely that it was not called out. In my opinion, it should have been. The weak link to the defence of this city is by striking at our Essential Services, our transport, our water, our electricity, our gas, the health services, the daily supply of food and other necessary commodities. I say that far from considering the disbanding of the Essential Services Corps the Government should sell it to the people of Hong Kong, make them aware that it exists, that it is responsible for their safety in an emergency by still supplying them with the
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