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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN.Before we proceed with the business on the agenda, may I extend to all of you my best wishes for good health and happiness in the New Year.
You will, I am sure, also wish me to express our very sincere congratulations to Dr. LEE, Mr. SALES and Mr. WATSON, on their appointment by Her Majesty the Queen as Officers of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List. (Applause). This mark of esteem towards three of our fellow-councillors is most gratifying to us all.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:- Mr. Chairman, on behalf of myself, presumably Mr. SALES will speak on behalf of the Appointed Members, (Laughter) I would like to thank you for your kind expression of congratulations which I thoroughly appreciate. (Applause).
MR. A. de O. SALES: - Mr. Chairman, my colleague Mr. WATSON has very kindly suggested that the first meeting in the New Year is the time to show a solid and common front and he has asked me to speak on his behalf to thank you for your very kind references to the awards which have been given to us. I was very gravely concerned whether this award carried any pension at all, because another honour which I received some years ago entitled me to a pension and I thought if I accumulated them I would be able to retire from this Council. (Laughter). It has been suggested that Mr. WATSON has now become respectable as a result, but I am assured that he is, like I am, not at all inhibited by this show of favour. There has been some uneasiness on the part of the people in Kowloon lest I should change tack, but if anything at all, Mr. Chairman, I will in future suggest to the people of Kowloon that they demand instead of self-Government just self-determination. Even dear old Hilton (Mr. CHEONG-LEEN) has surreptitiously encroached on my territory so soon after the announcement of this award by consulting Kowloon residents on matters which concern mine and not his constituency. (Laughter).
With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, may I thank you for Mr. WATSON and myself. (Applause).
Mr. CHEONG-LEEN:- On a point of order, Mr. Chairman, the constituency of the Elected Members is Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, and also on another point of order, may I ask Mr. SALES, through you, to define self-determination?
CHAIRMAN:- I think, Sir, that we must proceed with the agenda now.
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL MINUTES.287
The Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 3rd December, 1963, were confirmed.
PAPERS.THE CHAIRMAN laid upon the table the following paper:
Report on the work of the Urban Council and Urban Services Department for the month of December 1963.
QUESTIONS.MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:-
The Urban Council's Ad Hoc Committee on Fireworks has recommended that the Urban Services Department and the Resettlement Department should give maximum co-operation in the campaign to reduce fire hazard and danger to life and limb during the 1964 Chinese New Year festivities; will the Chairman please state what specific measures are being or will be taken by these two departments to assist in the campaign?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
Members will recall that the Council's Ad Hoc Committee on the Control of Fireworks, suggested in its report that a strong publicity campaign should be launched in regard to the safe use of fireworks and the committee recommended that the staff of the Urban Services Department and the Resettlement Department should be used, in any campaign, to distribute posters and leaflets. Both my friend, the Commissioner for Resettlement, and I, would be more than willing for our staff to co-operate as proposed. The Ad Hoc Committee also agreed in principle with a proposal to restrict the sale of fireworks to the public only through licensed retailers and that sale through hawkers should be prohibited. This is where the Hawker Control Force would be able to assist if and when the appropriate legislation was enacted or other means of affecting this were adopted. However, you will recollect, Sir, that when the Ad Hoc Committee's report was considered by the Standing Committee of this Council, Members were generally in favour of leaving this particular recommendation in abeyance until the effect of any improvement, resulting from other measures of control, could be gauged after the coming Chinese New Year. You will also recollect, Sir, that at the meeting in January last year, you asked a
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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
ADDRESS BY CHAIRMAN.
Before we proceed with the business on the agenda, may I extend to all of you my best wishes for good health and happiness in the New Year.
You will, I am sure, also wish me to express our very sincere congratulations to Dr. LEE, Mr. SALES and Mr. WATSON, on their appointment by Her Majesty the Queen as Officers of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List. (Applause). This mark of esteem towards three of our fellow-councillors is most gratifying to us all.
DR. R. H. S. LEE:-Mr. Chairman, on behalf of myself, presumably Mr. SALES will speak on behalf of the Appointed Members, (Laughter) I would like to thank you for your kind expression of congratulations which I thoroughly appreciate. (Applause).
MR. A. de O. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, my colleague Mr. WATSON has very kindly suggested that the first meeting in the New Year is the time to show a solid and common front and he has asked me to speak on his behalf to thank you for your very kind references to the awards which have been given to us. I was very gravely concerned whether this award carried any pension at all, because another honour which I received some years ago entitled me to a pension and I thought if I accumulated them I would be able to retire from this Council. (Laughter). It has been suggested that Mr. WATSON has now become respectable as a result, but I am assured that he is, like I am, not at all inhibited by this show of favour. There has been some uneasiness on the part of the people in Kowloon lest I should change tack, but if anything at all, Mr. Chairman, I will in future suggest to the people of Kowloon that they demand instead of self-Government just self-determination. Even dear old Hilton (Mr. CHEONG-LEEN) has surreptitiously encroached on my territory so soon after the announce- ment of this award by consulting Kowloon residents on matters which concern mine and not his constituency. (Laughter).
With these remarks, Mr. Chairman, may I thank you for Mr. WATSON and myself. (Applause).
Mr. CHEONG-LEEN:-On a point of order, Mr. Chairman, the constituency of the Elected Members is Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, and also on another point of order, may I ask Mr. SALES, through you, to define self-determination?
now.
CHAIRMAN:-I think, Sir, that we must proceed with the agenda
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
MINUTES.
287
The Minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 3rd December, 1963, were confirmed.
PAPERS.
THE CHAIRMAN laid upon the table the following paper:
Report on the work of the Urban Council and Urban Services
Department for the month of December 1963.
QUESTIONS.
MR. H. CHEONG-LEEN asked the following question:-
The Urban Council's Ad Hoc Committee on Fireworks has recommended that the Urban Services Department and the Resettlement Department should give maximum co-operation in the campaign to reduce fire hazard and danger to life and limb during the 1964 Chinese New Year festivities; will the Chairman please state what specific measures are being or will be taken by these two departments to assist in the campaign?
THE CHAIRMAN replied as follows:-
Members will recall that the Council's Ad Hoc Committee on the Control of Fireworks, suggested in its report that a strong publicity campaign should be launched in regard to the safe use of fireworks and the committee recommend- ed that the staff of the Urban Services Department and the Resettlement Department should be used, in any cam- paign, to distribute posters and leaflets. Both my friend, the Commissioner for Resettlement, and I, would be more than willing for our staff to co-operate as proposed. The Ad Hoc Committee also agreed in principle with a proposal to restrict the sale of fireworks to the public only through licensed retailers and that sale through hawkers should be prohibited. This is where the Hawker Control Force would be able to assist if and when the appropriate legis- lation was enacted or other means of affecting this were adopted. However, you will recollect, Sir, that when the Ad Hoc Committee's report was considered by the Standing Committee of this Council, Members were generally in favour of leaving this particular recommendation in abey- ance until the effect of any improvement, resulting from other measures of control, could be gauged after the coming Chinese New Year. You will also recollect, Sir, that at the meeting in January last year, you asked a
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