Hongkong Standard
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Page 8 Wednesday, March 4, 1970
Councillors
write a page in history
THE shock must have been severe at the government end in the Urban Council yesterday. The slap-in-the-face was unexpected. But the walkout, the first that has happened in the 25-year history of the Council, is a warning that government must heed.
The indication is that more walk-outs can be expected if government dilly-dallies with important issues such as the implementing of local government reforms.
The Council chairman, Mr. Alexander, said that he was sorry that the Councillors took that particular line of action. He had the hope that they would have waited for a few more weeks to see if something definite would come up. But, the Councillors had been waiting for four years for a reply from government. Mr. Alexander said that government had not been sitting on the reply. Earlier he did say in reply to Mr. Hilton Cheong-Leen that he held discussions with the Colonial Secretary and the Governor, but nothing definite had been worked out. He also said that an important subject such as reforms in the government would have to be referred to the Executive Council but this had not been done.
Did Mr. Alexander imagine that what had not been done in four years could now be achieved in a few weeks?
The Councillors who walked out did so because they were fed up with the cat-and-mouse game which they have been playing with the government. Besides feeling frustrated, they must have felt quite silly when Mr. Alexander gave his reply.
It is quite obvious that the question of local, government reforms has not moved very far up the line since the proposals were made in 1966.
The Council's ad hoc committee's report also quite obviously turned some faces red at the top. The report could not have been received with the warm smiles that would have greeted anything else but a report asking for reforms in the government. It was a case of throwing the cat among the pigeons.
In our editorial yesterday, we said the chances of something enlightening being told the Councillors were slim. By that we meant, a progress report. But the Councillors were certainly enlightened by Mr. Alexander when he stated that the report on the reform issue had not reached the Executive Council after four years.
The Councillors have been further enlightened They now know, the exact interpretation of our ofe povernment's choice phraars "av Hve combleration", I there had been any action in the reforms issue by government, the Councillors have yet to hear of it.
The sum total of it all is that the issue is too touchy a subject to proceed with at the moment. And, the attitude taken by government is that the less said about it the better.
But if that is the case, it is a rattier short sighted attitude to adopt. Wouldn't bridging the communica
tions grap with the people be in poverment's tave.. " Wouldn't aombad man be
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more Cpartei! Cosmillors
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NIXON'S BIG TI
Fighting a impossibl
ICHARD NIXON is today grappling with the su All that has gone before has been for him the awesome problem confronting him now
The issues are starkly simple.
Can President Nixon afford to allow Laos to be overrun by the Com- munists?
The answer to that question must be an un- equivocal “No”. “
Can President Nixon permit further American military involvement stop the Communists in another country in South- East Asia and yet retain his popularity at home?
The
answer to that question must also be "No".
to
are
It appears an impossible dilemma. Yet men become Presidents because the voters believe they uniquely endowed with the political genius which can surmount even greater problems.
This is the testing time. Now is the moment for Nixon to show whether he has the stature or whether he has not.
Answer
Laos is to Nixon what the Cuban missile crisis was to Kennedy and what the Gulf of Tonkin was to Johnson.
Nixon's answer to the North Vietnamese and local Communist insurgents as they storm deep into the heart of Laos has been to fight, but to fight in secrecy.
He has, in fact, sought to hide a wit incredible as that may seem.
He has done so by letting none of his top officials talk about what has been happening. The secrecy Ins heen Com prijenos, reachung. Evm the Whic House
(01:
H
By
HENRY LOWRII
are supposed to be kep informed of what th United States is doin have been kept largely i the dark.
Recently, I heard Hen! Kissinger, Mr. Nixon's toj foreign policy adviser and principal author of the State of the World messago sent to Congress say that the aim now wa not for the United State to act as a fireman rushing from one fire to another
Delighted
So Nixon should not be getting his fingers burner in Laos. Yet he cannot, h feels, suddenly retreat and let the Communists takı
over.
Mr. Nixon would be a delighted to get out 0 Laos as out of Vietnam
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not just to save men and money but to polish up his and the Republicat
P
image so that it wil shine untarnished by the time the Congressiona elections take place it November of this year.
He said in his State of the World message tha
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