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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
I must say that I am sorry that to-day so many of us are leaving, all at the same time. Mr. LI YIU-BOR, Dr. Woo, Dr. BELL and Mr. WRIGHT have served the Council well for many, many years, and compared to them my five years seems so very insignificant. I do not have a very glamorous excuse for my resignation—nothing like a protest or something. My reason is very simple: I find that the work is a little bit too heavy. I spend about an hour and a half a day to read my papers. May be I am slower or more stupid than others, but I find the work heavy. Dr. Woo has said that the early morning meetings make him fit and healthy. I cannot say so for myself, it's going to kill me one day. (Laughter). My second reason is that Hong Kong is a place for the young and I am giving up my seat to a younger person, I hope. I hope that it will be a lady and I hope that she will be spoiled like I have been. I also hope that she will be able to enjoy the meetings as much as I have. I shall miss all the fun in this Council and all the fun of the various discussions and arguments, and also miss the fellowship of working together. I appreciate all the courtesy, co-operation and friendship shown to me by the Chairman, my Official Colleagues and my Unofficial Colleagues and Secretaries, especially my Appointed Colleagues who, as I said before, have spoiled me to a great extent. Sir, I would also like, in his absence, to say how much I appreciate my ward partner, Mr. Henry Hu, for taking a great deal of the hard work out of my hands. I am certainly going to vote for him to-morrow.
I wish the Council every success in their work with all the new members. I hope that my successor, whoever it may be, but who I hope, as I said before will be a she, will enjoy the work as much as I have. (Applause).
DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC WORKS: -Mr. Chairman, I am not going to say anything more except to thank you and Mr. Li for what you have said in your good wishes, and about my work on the Urban Council. I am very, very sad at leaving Hong Kong. I hope sometime that I will come back, at least for a holiday. I would like to wish the Council and the people standing for election to-morrow the best of luck. (Applause).
DR. BELL: Mr. Chairman, I really cannot bear feeling very sad. I am very sad to know that Mr. WRIGHT is going, he has done tremendous work for Hong Kong, and like everybody else, I wish him and Mrs. WRIGHT, their family, a very happy retirement indeed.
You talk about my retirement from this Council, certainly this is the last meeting that I shall attend of this period of being an elected member, but as I have taken considerable trouble to point out every time I have been interviewed by radio or television, or what have you, I am not retiring. I am not seeking re-election this time. This I have done before. I hope none of you are going to regret the nice things you have said to-day. (Laughter) if I should change my mind in the future and seek re-election. I have never had so many nice things said to me before while I was sitting on the Council. (Laughter). Nobody ever said to me "please carry on sitting on the Council" while I was sitting on it, and it has only been when I decided not to sit on it that they have asked me to do it. I didn't realize that it is glamorous to protest. I did not intend to be glamorous. It is really more a Chinese idea, I think, perhaps than a European one. Certainly, it isn't negative as Mr. BERNACCHI suggested in the papers, and that must be perfectly obvious. (Laughter). It has been extremely positive. I think that the Chinese idea of strategy to sometimes stand down or retreat at a time when it is not expected will get a victory in the long run, perhaps not for the person concerned, but for the people concerned, and I think that perhaps the fact that I have said this is in a protest, and it is a protest, a protest against many things which were confirmed by the Budget Debate in no uncertain terms. I have already spoken about this this afternoon, this awful idea of giving public assistance, handing out to people, perhaps $50. It is absolutely wicked in this day and age, and that has confirmed my protest in no uncertain terms. I have made the protest where it counts, I hope, and I shall make it where it counts even more, I hope, when I visit U.K. next month, over several matters which concern a lot of people here in Hong Kong. I regret perhaps letting down the voters, if one can be said to be letting down the voters, because one never really knows how they are going to vote, it is a curious thing how they go about it, or whether in fact they vote at all. I very much hope that the miserable 34,000 that Government has reluctantly allowed to vote will turn out to-morrow. I hope they will turn out in full. I hope very much that they will vote for the first Chinese woman who has had the courage and the guts to stand. (Applause). It is no secret, and Mrs. Ellen LI will verify this, that I have approached many Chinese women over the years hoping that they will stand and, unfortunately, whether it is because they are exceptionally shy, timid or afraid of losing face, each one has refused or perhaps they are hoping for appointment, that I do not know. Even if that is so, I hope that they are appointed. I think, like you, it is a good thing to have women on the Council, on all the Councils in Hong Kong.
I would particularly like to say a vote of thanks to our Secretary, Mr. TINSON, I thought he had been here many, many more years than he has. I was quite surprised to find that he has only been with us for 3 years, because he always seems to have been so exceedingly helpful and so exceedingly understanding and has gone out of his way to assist, certainly myself, I think probably all of us. I specially want to mention him and, of course, other staff of the Department, some who have been jolly rude, some have been jolly nice, and I still say
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