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that we are not wholly convinced by that
argument. It seems to us that the advantages offered by such a system in extending the range of recruitment to a section of the community
which no doubt contains able and worth-while (and well-known) people, would more than offset the disadvantages. We agree however that if
a system of payment were introduced it would
be essential to choose candidates whose
appointments would be least likely to give rise to the kind of difficulty you foresee. (b) The language problem
It is obviously desirable that Members should
have a fair knowledge of written and spoken
English. But is this essential ? I see from
Executive Council Memorandum No.XCC(70)54
dated 1 October, 1970, that since 1969 all Bills
and Regulations have been translated into
Chinese. If, in addition, facilities for
simultaneous interpretation were introduced (we do not know of course what recommendations the Fung Committee will make), wold it not be
possible (and presentiationally useful ?) to
appoint as an experiment at least one Member
who would be more at home in Chinese than in
English? Such a Member could perhaps be
selected from the New Territories. We have
recently been looking at the latest petition
from the Heung Yee Kuk and while we agree with your proposed reply to their representations
(our Saving Despatch No. ) we feel that in our
review of the arrangements we should not ignore
the possibilities of strengthening the
representation of the New Territories in one
way or another.
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