TNAG-0084-FCO40-120-Bribery-and-corruption-of-government-officials-1968 — Page 43

Reference....

SOUTH CHINA MORNING

POST 1914/68

ABOLITION IDEA

'RIDICULOUS'

Any suggestion of abolishing the Hawker Control Force was ridiculous, Mr Brook Bernacchi, Chairman of the Hawkers' Select Committee, the Urban Council, said yesterday.

Mr Bernacchi was commenting on a statement made by Mrs Elsie Elliott, an Urban Coun- cillor, who on Wednesday called for the abolition of the force as one of the suggested solutions to the hawker problem.

Mrs Elliott suggested and stressed the corruption aspect

and alleged many hawkers le in fear of framing by police.

"Both, of course, occasionally take place but to use this as a reason

there for saying that should be no control over haw- kers is to beg the question altogether," he said.

He said the Hawker Control Force was the Urban Council's own force for carrying but the wishes of the Urban Council.

**It is an unarmed force whose duties are mainly per- suasive and only in the last resort taking proceedings in court. Any allegation of corrup- tion should be brought to the attention of the Urban Council, and very definitely should be investigated," he said.

Mr Bernacchi, however, agreed with some points made by Mrs Elliott. He said the Police and the Hawker Control Force exercising jurisdiction in hawker matters was "unsatisfactory and unfair" both to the Council and to the hawkers.

Remedy

He added that this "can only be remedied by increasing the numbers of the members of the Hawker Control Force

so that the Urban Council, which licenses hawkers, is also the body responsible for their control.”

He said that Mrs Elliott's other suggestions for bigger stalls, more thought be given to layout of stalls, and for stalls to be rented out would be con-

sidered.

"The Urban Council is well aware of the points made by Mrs Elliott. We have always tried to give a fair deal to the hawkers while remembering they are not the only section of the public that have to be given

a fair deal,"

The idea of hawker bazaars was essentially a good one, and he agreed that these bazaars must be situated where the hawkers could do business, and they must be so arranged as to give the hawkers a fair oppor- tunity of getting trade and reasonable space in which to display their wares,

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