364 HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL - 9th February 1972.
[SIR YUET-KEUNG KAN] White Paper on the Urban Council
this Council for eleven years and I do not remember having to toe an official line and I can certainly vouch for the fact that there has never been any Government line for me to toe. I am sure that I speak for the other Unofficial Members of this Council. I think it may be unfortunate if people feel that the appointed members, whether they be in the Urban Council or in this Council, have an official line to toe.
Sir, having said that may I go to the matter which is the subject of this debate, one aspect of today's proceedings-something which the honourable Mr Woo has referred to the importance of which may escape the attention of this Council. The White Paper is undoubtedly an important one and some of the proposals in that White Paper are undoubtedly controversial, not only among Urban Councillors them- selves but even among Members of this Council; as we have just heard from Mr Lo, we do have differences of opinion. Realizing the impor- tance of this White Paper and realizing the controversial nature of it, Unofficial Members of this Council have formed a group to study the White Paper in the course of which, as the honourable Mr Woo has mentioned, we have had the benefit of discussions with both the elected and the appointed members of the Urban Council, listened to their rather divergent views on various aspects of the White Paper and, as a result of these discussions and also of discussions among ourselves, we have been able to present to Government today, through the speeches made by previous speakers, what we think to be the general view not only of Members of this Council-with perhaps the exception of the honourable Mr Lo-but also the views of the Urban Council.
This is, Sir, an aspect of the matter which to my mind offers Unofficial Members of this Council a distinct opportunity to make a contribution to be able to assess the views of the general public, particularly those who are initially affected, and be able to present not only just our views but the views of those others who are affected by it.
I think this is a very important step, one which I hope in years to come in all matters of this importance we should be able to continue to make. I regard it as a useful and a valuable contribution and I would like to take this opportunity to thank those Unofficial Members of this Council, headed by Mr Woo, who were members of this group and who have in fact spent many painstaking hours in considering this Paper and thus being able, as I have said, to present their views in this Council today.
Question proposed.
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