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speaker said that I have supported his suggestion on a previous occasion. I was rather sorry to see that he did not take it up seriously subsequent to that meeting.

The question was put.

The motion was carried.

THE CHAIRMAN moved the following motion:

THAT this Council accept the Statement of Progress and Policy tabled today and in particular endorse the summary of the Council's main aims for 1963/64 as set out on pages 17 and 18 of the Statement.

He said: I rise to move the motion standing in my name as Item 4(3) on the Order Paper.

It is customary on this occasion for the Chairman to do the listening instead of the talking. All I will say, therefore, is that I look forward with keen interest to the speeches of our friends, the Unofficial Members. On their conclusion, it will be moved that the debate be adjourned to the next meeting, when the Official Members will en- deavour to reply to points raised.

I beg to move.

THE VICE-CHAIRMAN seconded.

MR. A. DE O. SALES:-Mr. Chairman, if a man does not know to which port he is sailing, no wind is favourable to him. It does not apply to this Council, for sure, because our Statement of Progress and Policy and our Main Aims set a clear course for 1963/64.

Even so, I fear that we must propitiate the local gods according to custom. After sacrificing our more ambitious ventures, I expect that the omens will be favourable for us to set sail. In time, we will make port without, I trust, having to change tack.

It is my intention to speak on four matters of general policy to- day:

first, public relations;

secondly, urban amenities;

thirdly, widening the scope of this Council; and fourthly, the recruitment and training of staff.

It is not my purpose, however, to abandon the cause of Kowloon altogether. I am told that some of my colleagues on the Appointed side will champion that cause to-day. Still, Mr. Chairman, may I

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through you warn the new member from Kowloon that we of Kowloon must beware of Greeks bearing gifts. I have read most of the speeches to be made by my Appointed colleagues and I assure you, Mr. Chair- man, that they deal in a comprehensive manner about much that is done in this Council and about much more that is unfortunately not within the province of the Urban Council. They make very telling points which I trust will be represented to Government.

Informing the people

When I first spoke in this Council, I pointed strongly to the need for better public relations: to remove the misunderstandings about the Council and, more important, to win the co-operation of the public for the programmes which the Council carries out in so many directions. Little progress appears to have been made. I suspect that many of our projects would get far better results, and might even cost the taxpayer less in the process, if all the forces Government could com- mand were brought into play in a carefully co-ordinated manner to tell the people why the measures were being taken and how their lot would be bettered in consequence.

Mine is the voice in the wilderness-year in, year out. Yet I make one more plea for better public relations. I repeat what I have said, time and again. It seems to me that it is of paramount importance for Government, not this Council alone, to assess public attitudes intel- ligently, and to identify, in the public mind, all Government plans and procedures with the public interest in each case. Here, I believe, is the essence of good public relations.

In this connexion, Mr. Chairman, I wonder whether our Govern- ment, latterly so preoccupied with the Hong Kong image abroad but not without reason, has found the time to study its own reflection on the domestic scene.

Let us spend on the promotion of Hong Kong's interests abroad all the money we can reasonably afford, for such effort can only do good to the community. Still, let us not take the people here for granted, for it is clearly in the general interest that our citizens must know, all the time, that their well-being is the first and main concern of the Hong Kong Government.

Urban Amenities

When I had occasion last year to represent to the Town Planning Board this Council's views on the Central District Re-Development Plan, I said in the course of the discussion which ensued: "No land can ever be too valuable if the public interest demands that it be set aside for public use.”