TNAG-0570-FCO40-703-Planning-paper-on-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 190

15.

SECREI

In these circumstances, the machinery of Government is

developing on unique lines. The present Governor's intention is to produce a more local and less alien government, encouraging and organising public participation at all levels designed to create cohesion and a sense of local identity based upon civic pride. He has increased the number of Advisory Boards which

provide an opportunity for those outside government to make their views known on a wide variety of topics, and has sought to widen representation on them. He also initiated the system of Mutual Aid Committees, initially designed to combat crime but subsequently adapted as a link between the population at large and Government

over a wide field of neighbourhood issues. Plans for further institutional development follow four principal lines of approach:

(a)

increasing contacts between the local institutions

(including the Mutual Aid Committees), and local representatives of the central Government (such as District Officers and their

liaison staff);

(b) drawing Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council from

a wider social background, including community leaders identified from the local institutions mentioned at (a) above;

(c)

appointing in due course, "Ministers" (care will be needed to

find a term to take into account Chinese sensitivities) for major

fields of Government policy from among the Unofficial Members of

the Executive Council who would be answerable for them in the

Legislative Council; and

(d) localising the Civil Service as much as possible bearing in mind the need to maintain a proportion of expatriates to maintain

confidence in the continuance of the colonial link.

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