15
Thursday, November 29, 1973
published before decisions were taken.
But "more informal methods of
airing ideas and proposals could be developed and I should like to give
further thought to this".
Obviously there were limitations, such as the budget, but he
said he would like to think that the government could air more proposals
involving a choice of courses open to it so that there was an opportunity
to shape policy more closely to public aspirations.
Mr. Bray said that on the second point there was already a basic
structure which enabled people to formulate and present their views, in-
cluding a broad range of advisory bodies which were capable of further
Lophistication.
Grass Roota
However, he said he was more concerned with the far wider network
of committees that had been reinforced during the clean Hong Kong and fight
crime campaigns. These are the City District Committees, the Area Committees
and the "grass roots organisations of over 1,000 Mutual Aid Committees."
In the New Territories there are the Rural Committees and the
village organisations.
Many of the town organisations were quite new, "but I certainly
hope they will provide the means whereby people can put forward their views
on anything they like."
As well, proposals to strengthen the government's opinion gathering
methods were now being drawn up.
/On the
1