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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

The argument has been advanced that if the Urban Council should take over the management of these Departments, then the Legislative Council would have very little to do. This I would dispute.

The Legislative Council is responsible for enacting all the laws of Hong Kong, and for approving or disallowing the financial needs of all Government Departments, including the needs of the Urban Services Department. This is a heavy responsibility and it in no way clashes with the responsibilities of the Urban Council, which cannot enact laws nor can it say anything in respect of the payment of taxes or the allocation of public funds to Government departments.

Another argument which has been advanced against the Urban Council taking over management of the Education, Medical and Social Welfare Departments is that these departments are more "political" in nature than the Urban Services Department.

The answer to this argument is straight-forward and simple: ir- respective of whether these departments are considered to be "political" in some quarters, they should be put under the management of the Urban Council because these departments have to do with the daily lives of Hong Kong people, their living conditions as human beings, the care of their sick, the education of their children, and the care for the aged, the crippled and the destitute.

If the People's Livelihood (4) is politics, then Hong Kong people are politically minded and are for more politics.

It is well for the Mother of Partiaments to remember that the Hong Kong colonial child cannot remain politically immature forever. It must be nurtured, encouraged and guided into maturity by being given ever- widening experiences and responsibilities. This is the parental duty of the Mother of Parliament to its Colonial child.

The Colonial Office cannot hold back the march of progress even in politically anachronistic Hong Kong. So why not let us move forward steadily in a spirit of peaceful revolution, instead of holding on grimly to the status quo, and proclaiming in a complacent voice "We've never had it so good, old chap, so why try to change the system."

Mr. Chairman, in moving now the motion before this Council, I quote the following words of Calvin Coolidge:-

"It would be folly to argue that the people cannot make political mistakes. They can and do make grave mistakes. They know it, they pay the penalty, but compared with the mistakes which have been made by every kind of autocracy they are unimportant."

MR. CHEUNG WING-IN-Mr. Chairman, I rise to second the motion of my friend Mr. Hilton CHEONG-LEEN. As the Urban Council is the

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only constitutional body with elected representatives, the people of Hong Kong are entitled to have a say through the elected Urban Councillors in matters which affect their everyday life. The popularity of the ward system is a strong testimony to the confidence the people of Hong Kong have in the unofficial members of the Council. This system has brought even more closely together the unofficial members of this Council and the average man in the street. Despite the increased number of seats in the Legislative Council, Government is still very much out of touch with the people. This is borne out by the serious blunder made in our education policy some three years ago. This blunder, with the resultant confusion and ultimate reversal of policy of entry age of primary school children, has very much impaired the good image of Government. So long as the people of Hong Kong are denied their right to elect their representatives to the Legislative Council, I as an Urban Councillor consider it my bounden duty to press and keep on pressing to have more say in this Council in matters which are vital to their interests.

We have now come to a stage when it is most likely that the fran- chise will be enlarged. Such enlargement cannot be expected to elicit much enthusiasm on the part of the voting public, if the persons they elect will continue to have no say in such important matters as education, medical services and social welfare. An expanded franchise without an expansion of the scope of the Urban Council will only make the election process in Hong Kong a little more farcical and hardly worthwhile.

To win the confidence of the people and to preserve the good image of Government, I urge that the Colonial Office give serious con- sideration to enlarge the scope of this Council, and make it competent to deal with matters connected with education, medical services and social welfare. I look forward to hearing the welcome news that Government is prepared to do so, and that this happy news will be released at the same time as an announcement of enlargement of the franchise.

MR. FUNG HON-CHU:-One of the aims for 1966 which the Council debated and adopted at its Annual Conventional Meeting last month was that we should press for the enlargement of its scope and its repre- sentation on various other public bodies. The motion before Council to-day is therefore in keeping with our declared policy.

I recall that in 1964 the Ad Hoc Committee, appointed by the Coun- cil to look into the expansion of the Council's scope, made recommen- dations to Government for Council's representation on certain Govern- ment bodies as a first step towards expanding its scope. Unfortunately this was rejected by Government, as was also the proposal to have certain heads of Government Department sit as members of this Council. These were modest requests, the acceptance of which would certainly have resulted in better co-ordination between departments, if nothing else.

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