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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 lin 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 Mr. Councillors WeH certainly enlightened by Alexander when he stated that the report on the reform issue had not reached the Executive Council after four years.
The Councillors have heen further enlighten !
Lema ad one ipe aw know the set inter
We live sometim op in the telonin s have
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NIXON'S BIG TI
Fighting 'impossibl
RICHARD 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 to 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".
It appears an impossible dilemma. Yet men become Presidents because the voters believe they arc 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 metedible to bude a Wat as then may seem. by
P has done
so by
his top
By
HENRY LOWRIE
are supposed to be kep informed of what the United States is doing have been kept largely in the dark.
Recently, I heard Heniy Kissinger, Mr. Nixon's top foreign policy adviser and principal author of the State of the World message sent to Congress say that the aim now was 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 burned in Laos. Yet he cannot, he feels, suddenly retreat and let the Communists take
over.
F
Mr. Nixon would be as delighted to get out of Laos as out of Vietnam. not just to save men and money but to polish up his and the Republicar
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image so that it wil shine untarnished by the time the Congressiona elections take place ir November of this year.
He said in his State of the World message that
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without addrevwy wid not be pubished. Pen names may be. used upon request should a correspondent unt wish to
T
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