CO537-2188 — Page 169

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Municipality when details of such property are available.

In deciding upon the terms, rogerd will have to be paid to.

the Colony's financial. position at the time and to the

question whether any replacements will be necessary for

Central Government purposes.

(m) Secondment of staff to the Municipality (paragraph 40).

I agree that this question should be referred to the Commission

proposed in paragraph 35 of Sir Mark Young's despatch, but it

will be necessary to considor very carefully whether, without

prejudice to the intorccts of 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.

(1)

Secondment of an experienced Town Clerk (par graph 41)

As you will be curare, Sir Mark Young subsequently suggested,

after further consideration, that stops 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, (o) 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-peragraph (1) above to the necessity for ensuring that, for such time as the Colony is in receipt of assistance from

His Majesty's Government, the external control exercised

over