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followed so successfully in other parts of the world.
You suggest that a middle way would be to widen the elected membership, the franchise and the power of the Urban Council. I am not against this
concept.
I was impressed, during my visit to Hong Kong, with the calibre and devotion of the Urban Councillors whom I met, elected and nominated alike But Hong Kong is probably too small and too concentrated for a fully fledged local government, exercising wide powers under a central authority. Moreover there is surely a danger where local government becomes elective before the central government, and takes over wide powers over the lives of ordinary people, of cutting off that central government from the very people they are supposed to serve.
Ble comm
The result can be
a lessening, rather than a strengthening of the sense of sharing in the business of government, which, if no carefully handled, can be very damaging.
As I said at my news conference, this problem of participation in Government is one where we must look very much to the people of Hong Kong themselves to guide us. Of course I realise that there is also a problem of institutionalising the views of the people, and of finding spokesmen to express them. It was for this reason that I was particularly encouraged, during my visit, by my meeting with the Chairmen of Mutual Aid Committees in Kowloon. It
seemed to me that these men can represent a strand of public opinion which is invaluable, to set alongside the views of bodies such as your own Reform Club, and
of the leaders of the Government in the Councils.
The second point in your memorandum is that there should be no cut-back in the Government's social
programme. Again, I fully agree. So, I know, does the Governor. The problem is that all these programmes have to be paid for: and that is difficult at a time of severe economic stringency.
Hong Kond
/is surviving
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