1966 — Page 150

Page 150 of 279

274

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

keep their colleagues in the dark and produced this report which professes to read the minds of their colleagues. This is at least true as far as the appointed members are concerned. (Laughter).

I see that Dr. LEE has also mentioned iron discipline and work. It seems that it does not seem to apply to the appointed side only. The four members of the committee are indeed to be congratulated that their powers of mental telepathy are almost all pervading and in general there is not much against which to argue as far as increasing the Future Scope and Operation of the Urban Council in principle.

I consider it fortunate for me that, while the committee operated behind absolutely closed doors, I was able to slip in through the window at a casual meeting of the Standing Committee of the Whole Council on September 13th and left my footprints on item 18, page 8 of the report.

Now we come to the serious business of debating this report and I cannot emphasize too much that this debate is important and I should like to take up the points which I had in mind.

In the first place, no one will dispute the fact that Hong Kong has grown and is still growing at such a pace that district councils are necessary under the overall authority of the Urban or Municipal Council for the purpose of administrative efficiency. In that respect I should love to see the Duke of Tsim Sha Tsui or shall I say one of the Dukes of Tsim Sha Tsui, or the Duchess of Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po or the Duke of Wong Tai Sin become the mayor of Kowloon, chairing the district council to bring the aspirations and projects of local interest to fruition. Similarly, I would welcome the Duke of Lantao to Hong Kong.

On the other hand, we have to tackle the question of the New Territories and the Kowloon City with the greatest of care and caution.

Owing to the short period of time between the tabling of this report on September 6th and placing this on the agenda for debate on September 13th, the present time being October 4th, I have not had the opportunity to study the aspects of this proposal from the standpoint of international law. But common sense tells me that, if a sovereign power makes a treaty with another it recognizes the administration of that paramount power for the administration of the leased territory, which in this case has 31 years to go. It might be looked upon askance if the sovereign power started to elect local representatives even though they are at a district or municipal level. The interpretation might be given that the election created by the administration creates a new body which would not be welcome. Any unilateral action is inadvisable in this case. The second point about the New Territories is that the present Heung Yee Kuk which long predates this Urban Council is strongly against the principle of the new district council in the New Territories.

HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL

275

Council is strongly against the principle of the new district council in the New Territories.

Under the circumstances in the best interest of Hong Kong, why should this Urban Council take a step which, on one hand, might jeopardize the proven serenity, stability and prosperity of this territory, and on the other hand, incur the wrath of the Heung Yee Kuk which Mr. historically have more rights than us in this particular area? Chairman, you can draw your own conclusions.

In the case of the Kowloon City the Anglo-Chinese Treaty specified a magistrate as the administrator. I do not propose to go into details at this stage but I would again advise extreme caution in holding elections in this area which was the Kowloon walled city.

Now I come to my next point. That is the takeover of the Medical Department which up to the present time is the responsibility of the Legislative Council. Personally, as some of my colleagues know, I have a great weakness for medical affairs and as some others may share the feelings I would indeed be most happy to have my colleagues in this Council participate in the supervision of this very important department.

But taking over of the major department of the Medical and Health Services, and the Department of Education presupposes a large municipality of its own. In this respect Hong Kong is different from other countries where they have municipalities, counties, provinces or states, and the national or federal government. In Hong Kong, we have strictly speaking 399 sq. miles of territory including the leased territory which constitutes the majority of the area. The four functions of government from local, county, provincial and federal are all lumped in one. If we were to take over all the functions, for instance, and make a further step from the 20 functions for which we are not asking, it would render the Legislative Council, the Executive Council and the Colonial Secretariat superfluous.

MR. MARDEN:-hear, hear.

MR. WONG continued:-I think this would not be in the interest of Hong Kong with its particular background and surroundings. I do not think we should ask for the takeover of these two major departments and I would quote the two lines of wisdom as they are contained in the second paragraph of the report under "foreword", "proud as we who live here are of Hong Kong's many and varied achievements, we are also conscious of its shortcomings." To paraphrase these words, I am saying "proud as I am at having been a member of this Urban Council for almost 7 years, I am also conscious of its shortcomings." We have made great strides in urban amenities and housing, but we have achieved only limited success in cleansing and hygiene and other matters under our jurisdiction.

Page 151 of 279

279