TNAG-0316-FCO40-352-Reform-of-local-government-of-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 47

For discussion

on 1st June 1971

CONFIDENTIAL

ANNEX A TO XCC71)52

XCC(71)20

Copy No.....of 30

MEMORANDUM FOR EXECUTIVE COUNCIL

THE URBAN COUNCIL AND THE SCOPE FOR LOCAL ADMINISTRATION

A

The problem

The purpose of this paper is to examine the various factors affecting the Urban Council in the context of the overall administration of the Colony, and to suggest changes which will both benefit that administration and dispose of at least some of the anomalous features of the Council asat present constituted. Much work has been done on this subject in recent years, resulting in the production of four reports; by an ad hoc Committee of the Urban Council in 1966, on the future scope and operations of the Council; the November 1966 Report by a Government Working Party on local administration generally, which was published in February 1967; the Dickinson reassessment after the events of 1967; and the Urban Council's own March 1969 Report on the reform of local government. Copies of these reports, with their divergent views, have been issued to Honourable Members. This has not been an easy paper to pre- pare, as there is no concensus of opinion on what the future of the Urban Council should be, There is however in official circles a general opinion that the present position is unsatisfactory.

History of the Urban Council

2

A brief history of constitutional changes since the Urban Council's predecessor, the Sanitary Board, was set up in 1883 is at Annex A. This describes how, in the face of Legislative Council opposition, the post- war Young Plan for a municipal council was abandoned, and attention was in- stead concentrated on minor changes, such as additional unofficial members for the Urban Council, as well as gradual expansion of the electorate; and how, likewise, nothing came of an April 1949 resolution by the unofficial members of the Legislative Council that that Council should include some members "elected by qualified residents of British nationality".

Objections to local authorities

3

All these reports have one feature in common, that they have regard only to the Urban Council and possible local authorities, and make no attempt to analyse the Council's role in the context of other administrative institutions in Hong Kong. This over-concentration on the Urban Council is not a cause for surprise, since so much of earlier thinking on this subject centred on the possibility of developing local authorities on the British pattern; indeed the 1966 Working Party's Terms of Reference referred specifically to devising a system of local government. It would be helpful therefore to deal with this concept, even though it is only tentatively recom- mended in the Urban Council's March 1969 Report (the Council having no doubt realised that if such district councils with specific powers were set up, this would reduce their own standing). The objections to setting up executive district councils are as follows:

CONFIDENTIAL