the holders, the posts of seconded officers should be
retained on the Colonial Establishment once the duties
of those posts have been transferred to the Municipality.
(n) Secondment of an experienced Town Clerk (paragraph 41)
A
As you will be aware, Sir Mark Young subsequently
suggested, after further consideration, that steps should
be taken with a view to engaging an experienced Town
Clerk from the United Kingdom for a period of approximately
two years to supervise the establishment of municipal
government in Hong Kong. I agree with this proposal,
and enquiries are now being made to this end.
(0)
External control over the affairs of the
Municipality (paragraph 42). The question whether or not
the affairs of the Municipal Council should be subject to
any form of external control, within their allotted sphere,
gives rise to a number of important legal and financial
problems and questions of policy, which I desire to
reserve for further examination. I shall accordingly
address you separately on this question as soon as I am
in a position to do so. Meanwhile, I have already drawn
attention in sub-paragraph (1) above to the necessity for
ensuring that, for such time as the Colony is in receipt
of assistance from Nis Majesty's Government, the external
control exercised over its finances in consequence of
that assistance will be applied to the finances of the
Municipality in so far as this may be necessary, and to the need for providing that the Municipality shall carry
out the accounting responsibilities of the Coloniɛl
Government in regard to any Colonial Development and
belfare scheme with which it may become concerned.
In this. context I would also suggest that it would
be more appropriate to describe the process of handing
over of functions to the Municipal Council as one of
delegation rather than of transfer, since it is clearly
not intended that the Legislature should surrender its
powers and vest them in the Municipal Council, but rather
that