This means that the Command Secretary British Forces is no longer an observer, but the full membership has been increased by four, two on the employees' side and two on the employers' side. This has enabled the four main employers' (manufacturers') bodies to be represented. The left wing unions continue to boycott the elections for employees' representatives.
Legislative Council
15. Eight new Unofficial Members were appointed to the Legislative Council at the end of August 1976 with a view to ensuring that opinion in the Council is more representative of all sections of the community in Hong Kong. These include Leung Tat-shing, President of the Urban Services Department, Kowloon Workers' General Union and an elected member of the Labour Advisory Board since 1971; Father Patrick McGovern, who founded the Industrial Relations Institute in Hong Kong; the Reverend Joyce Bennett, an Anglican missionary, educationist and social worker; and Wong Lam, a former bus conductor who is now supervisor of a depot of the Kowloon Motor Bus Company and adviser to the Motor Workers' Union. These appointments were welcomed in Hong Kong and the new members have already made their mark.
Social Welfare Public Assistance
16. The Hong Kong Government [plan has extended the present public assistance scheme from 1 April 1977 to include unemployed able-bodied persons between 15 and 55 years of age. The new scheme is intended to apply to those who have lived in Hong Kong for two years and have been unemployed for one month. As is the case in the present public assistance scheme, the Director of Social Welfare will have
discretion to make payments to persons in distress who are not able to meet the proposed criteria.
Social Security
17.
A DHSS expert is spending six months this year in Hong Kong to assist the Government in making a complete review of social security and social welfare needs and the extent to which the present Public Assistance Scheme needs to be expanded or modified.
It is hoped that this impartial and informed study will provide equitable solutions for vulnerable groups and an acceptable approach towards achieving those solutions.
Housing
18. Government housing at heavily subsidised rents was provided for 1.7 million persons between 1954 and 1973 and the target of the Hong Kong Government is self-contained housing in a decent environment for all and within the means of all by the early 1980s. Financial restraints arising from the recent recession mean that in 1976/77 and 1978/79 housing construction will only be sufficient to accommodat 72,000 and 109,000 persons respectively. But in 1978/79 the figure should rise to 170,000, reaching 224,000 in 1979/80. By 1984 the
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