TNAG-0937-FCO40-1156-Visits-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-th-1980 — Page 238

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could ignore them in the much larger Hong Kong.

The Urban Council

10.

Most of the current demands are focussed on the Urban

Council. It is by no means so certain that changes here would

meet with opposition from Peking. There is however still the

risk, to which the Governor attaches importance, that demands for

further reform, presumably in the Legislative Council, would be

stimulated, which could not be met.

11.

A stronger objection however is that the development of

the Urban Council is probably the wrong way to promote efficiency in

Local Government. The Council has a patchy record, particularly

on the control of hawkers and on sanitation and in the past proved

itself incompetent to manage housing. Its main value lies in the

constituency work by some elected members, but it seems to be at

the wrong level to undertake major executive tasks in Kowloon and

Victoria which must be mainly the responsibility of the central

government departments. Therefore, even if the franchise and the

proportion of elected members were broadened, there would be little

profit, and probably considerable public inconvenience, in accompany-

ing this by a widening of the Urban Council's role. Reform here

would thus be something of a dead end cosmetic exercise.

12.

I therefore believe that we should support the Governor

in resisting changes to the Legislative or Urban Councils and

should, if necessary, be prepared to speak more frankly in

defending this position, rather than simply saying that the time

for reform has not yet come. We should not point the finger too

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