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in themselves, a form of democracy in action rather than the show-window type that the Government is keener to present. In fact the Urban Council both in its present form and in its original form with officers of the Government as members of the Urban Council, does its real work in Select Committees. Also in the Ward Offices which, if I were given as I'm having now, the opportunity of saying what in my opinion was the best Motion ever to have been successfully passed in the Urban Council, I would say that of the late Dr. Raymond LEE's motion from which the Ward Offices were established and developed. There we see the grass roots of the real public of Hong Kong, and we endeavour to help them with their problems, not only on Urban Council matters, not only in connection with housing, but all sorts and shapes of other problems as well. This is a far better way of running local administration than envisaged in the complicated and expensive White Paper that creates District Boards. That is a reversion to the old DICKINSON'S Report of the 1960s which was totally turned down by the Urban Council, the Legislative Council, the Executive Council and indeed the people themselves, in favour of an enlarged, independent and more powerful Urban Council. Indeed, if the White Paper had been issued in 1970 based on the DICKINSON'S Report, it would not have been very different to the White Paper in its present 1980 form. I warn members, they must get together in the next two years, if the Urban Council is not going to be swamped by these District Boards, and must show the Government that Hong Kong relies upon the Urban Council. This is my parting theme. Hong Kong is too closely knit a community, and confined by area, to have all this complicated system of public administration envisaged in the White Paper. Personally, I am not against elections to the Urban Council by Wards, but I am against the waste of public money involved in the White Paper. I must warn my fellow Councillors to close their ranks now and present to the Government a picture, a true picture, of the Urban Council as the most valuable single asset there is to the administration of Hong Kong. Any system of local administration needs to start with the Urban Council. This is the Council that needs to be expanded in numbers, in jurisdiction, in composition and in area. There may be differences of opinion as to how this Council should be so expanded, but I hope that there are no differences of opinion that we must not allow this Urban Council to be gradually extinguished by a form of administration in which the Council is an embarrassment rather than the asset that it should be.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members all, 'joi kin, joi kin'. (Applause)
DR. HU (in English):- Mr. Chairman, thank you for your kind words to me and to my wife. I was grateful for the guidance and support given to me by my colleagues in the Urban Council and in the Urban Services Department during my sixteen years service in the Council. I wish to have your continuous support and guidance and advice so that I could serve the community of Hong Kong better. I indeed, miss the Council and all of you.
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I only most sincerely wish the continuous success of the Council and all of my colleagues today. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (Applause).
ADJOURNMENT--4.45 p.m.
CHAIRMAN (in English):- Having bade farewell to two of our most respected members here, I will declare Council adjourned until Tuesday, 14 April 1981, at 4.00 p.m.
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