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promised by His Excellency the former Governor, Sir Robert BLACK, that we are to have 2 more elected seats. Presumably, this will be done by holding the March 1965 Election with five candidates elected for years and the sixth successful candidate elected for 2 years, re- sulting, ultimately, in elections every 2 years for 5 elected seats.

This will in itself necessitate the appropriate amendments to the Urban Council Ordinance. Surely, the drafter of those amendments could also incorporate the recommendations in the Interim Report acceptable to Government. I need not harp upon the fact that the Urban Councillors put in a very great amount of time-unpaid, on select committees, and it is disappointing, to say the least, if Govern- ment cannot make the Interim Report on the revision of electoral procedure, which was forwarded to Government early in July, effective by the March Election next year. If the publication of the Final Register had to be delayed for some weeks, surely this is a small price to pay for the implementation of this Council's Interim Report. With an electoral register of under 40,000, an increase of more than 10,000 names is an increase of more than a quarter of the total register. It is a 19th century procedure to require people eligible to vote, to apply themselves for an application form to apply to vote. In England, 90% of the population are registered as of course; the remainder, the doubt- ful ones, are contacted personally, and such should be the procedure in Hong Kong. Also, the enlargements to the Electoral Register, the Interim Report recommended, cannot conceivably be objectionable. Take nurses for instance; why should nurses not have the vote when teachers are most correctly given the right to vote? I got the impres- sion, Mr. Chairman, from your answer to me last time, that Govern- ment was taking the attitude that the March 1967 Election would be sufficient time. I would draw the attention of this Council to the fact that the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee, in their Interim Report, made it quite clear that this Report was designed to meet the needs of the March 1965 Election and that the March 1967 Election might well be recommended to be held on a different basis altogether. Mr. Chairman, I move the motion :-

This Council urges the legislature to pass the necessary amend- ments to the Urban Council Ordinance to enable the recom- mendations contained in this Council's interim report on revision of the Election Procedure to be incorporated into the final register of electors for the March 1965 Election.

MR. A. de O. SALES: -Mr. Chairman, when Mr. BERNACCHI asked me this morning to second this motion I agreed to do so. As a member of the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee, I consider that the substance of this motion, at least the Interim Report, should have been put forward to this Council as a formal motion on behalf of the Select Committee. Mr. BERNACCHI and I were both away at different

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times this year, hence the oversight perhaps in pushing your Department to do so. In any case, Mr. Chairman, I now second this motion and reserve my right to speak under Standing Order No. 10 at a later stage in the debate.

MR. LI YIU-BOR:-Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the motion moved by Mr. Brook BERNACCHI and seconded by Mr. SALES. Perhaps unlike my good friend Mr. Hilton CHEONG-LEEN, I am a great believer in the work of the Select Committees. (Laughter). The substance of this motion is the outcome of very long and careful deliberations of the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Committee and the Civic Associa- tion elected members will be happy to give the motion their full support, as it is in accordance with our aim to extend the franchise gradually and by categories.

I have pleasure in supporting the motion.

CHAIRMAN:-As I informed Members at the last Council meeting, the Interim Report of the Standing Orders and Procedure Select Com- mittee was forwarded to the Colonial Secretary on 8th July, 1964. This left a period of approximately three months in which to consider the recommendations in the Report and to make the necessary amendments to the legislation; this period assumes approval of the proposals for automatic registration. Without the latter the period was substantially less. It will, I think, be appreciated that the recommendations in the Report required careful consideration. It was not possible to come to a conclusion on them before the present dead-line date set for starting the compilation of the Electoral Register, that is, 2nd September.

The Commissioner of Registration, as the Registration Officer under the Urban Council Ordinance, has to work to a rigid time-table in order that the Final Register may be published on the 1st February preceding the March elections. He has to start the compilation of the Provisional Register on 2nd September and this work must be com- pleted on or before the 1st October in order that the Provisional Register may be opened for public inspection. The Provisional Register needs to remain open for such inspection for a fortnight; it is closed on 14th October and no further additions to it or deletions from it may be made thereafter. In other words, the 14th October is another dead- line and no more applications can be accepted after that date, nor could automatic registration continue after 1st October.

Between the 15th and 31st October, the particulars of any cases under dispute are prepared for sending to the Revising Officer and this has to be done no later than 1st November. The Revising Officer's decisions on the cases have to be made known to the Registration Officer before the 1st December. From then until 31st January, the Final Register is prepared and printed and it must be published no later than 1st February.

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