17
Wednesday, June 20, 1973
CO-OPERATION IS THE KEYNOTE
The Hon. Mrs. Joyce Symons today said that the vital lesson to be
learned from the "dreaded events" of the June rainstorms last year was that
"co-operation is the keynote to our common wellbeing."
She was speaking in the Legislative Council during the adjournment
debate on the occasion of the first anniversary of the rainstorm disasters,
While there was no doubt that the heavy rainfall during the period
had played a dominant role in the landslides, she said, "contributing factore
may well have been human weakness,1
"By this I mean carelessness, almost callousness," she said.
Mrs. Symons said she was convinced that from the events of June
1972 "must be born a new determination never again to let the public down in
a matter of such significance."
She added: "It must be stated categorically by the government and
impressed upon all civil servants that negligence, collusion, procrastination,
indifference and ineptitude have no place in the Hong Kong future."
Referring to the Po Shan Road landslide area, she said a landslip in
a cutting in that area in August 1971 led to a temporary suspension of construction
work after it was discovered that the cutting was not of rock composition.
The alarming fast was, she went on, that even before typhoon Rose
"a major cutting in that area was left unsupported and virtually unmaintained for
more than seven years",
/Regardless