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our nose to the grindstone, work out the local organization and aim towards it. I do not think that by paying visits to London, New York or Chicago, we will improve the relationship between the Government and the people at local Government level.
I feel there is a slight trace of incongruity in the working of this particular motion. It almost seems as if the motion was drafted by more than one person. So, with these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I think this motion should be passed to the proper Select Committee which we have created for such purpose, and I second that the motion be referred to the Select Committee on Local Administration.
CHAIRMAN:-Before I call for a vote on the motion by Mr. SALES to refer this motion to the appropriate Select Committee, namely, the Select Committee on Local Administration, I think perhaps I should make a few remarks in order to clarify our Record of Proceedings.
My first point is that when I considered this motion submitted by Mr. Hu, I felt very much the same as Mr. Wilfred WONG. I jotted down in my notes on which to speak, "Is the motion misconceived? Have the proposer and seconder convinced the Council that developing and promoting a closer relationship between the City of Hong Kong and other big cities of the world will help the Urban Council either to discharge its statutory duties better or to establish closer liaison with the people of the urban areas of Hong Kong?" This is the first question.
The second point simply concerns a point of clarification. The text of the motion mentions the City of Hong Kong. There is no such thing.
My third point concerns the question: does it lie in the power of the Urban Council to take the action proposed? We do not represent the City of Victoria, which incidentally does exist, nor the City of Kowloon which does not exist. We are responsible for certain aspects of administration in the urban areas. We are not a local authority yet, in spite of what Mr. BERNACCHI has said. There is no municipality as such here, and although we have aspirations, we must now deal with realities. Not only have we no authority for making approaches to other cities to establish closer relationships with them, but there would be, if we made this approach, a need to define our own position for them, so that they would not be misled into thinking that we had more to offer than we in fact have. I wonder what would be their reaction on learning that we are not a local authority or a municipality?
HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
I think this motion has some reference to a fairly well-established practice, particularly common with American cities, and also Canadian and Japanese cities, of selecting another overseas city to be one's twin city, and friendly letters are exchanged, visits exchanged and a special relationship is built up. But I have not heard that any city proliferates this practice thereby debasing, as it were, the coinage that it has to offer. This motion suggests special relationships with a number of cities. I think in any case we might be limited by world practice to a relationship with one city.
It is the object of these remarks, therefore, to suggest that no action such as the proposer proposed in his motion is possible under our present constitutional position, and it is for this reason that I support the motion proposed by Mr. SALES, under Standing Order 10(17)(j), that the subject of the debate be referred to or back to a Committee, namely, the Committee on Local Administration.
MR. LI:-Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the motion proposed by Mr. SALES and seconded by Mr. WONG. In doing so, I should like to speak on certain remarks made by Mr. Hu in his speech. He said that the recent disturbances were, if I remember correctly, caused by social and economic factors. I am not sure whether I remember his speech correctly. If I remember it correctly, I should like to dissociate myself from that remark, because as far as I know, the reasons for the disturbances were not connected at all with any social or economic factors in Hong Kong. They were engineered by people who have an axe to grind and who want to get us into trouble. With these few remarks, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion to refer the original motion to a Select Committee.
CHAIRMAN: Mr. Hu, on a motion of this kind you have a right of reply at this stage.
MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, I anticipated difficulty in carrying this motion through in this Council, but it is surprising to learn that we, the Urban Council, which has existed for nearly fifteen years, has still not even achieved an equal status with other cities of the world.
On the point raised by you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. WONG, about the relationship of my motion and the statutory duty of the Urban Council, I would say this, that without peace and stability, how can we carry out our resettlement projects and our projects to improve our city. If the present conditions are not to be improved, as some members in question time did raise, then should we in Hong Kong still face the situation single-handed in future? We must co-operate with other cities of the world to help us to solve our economic and social problems. As a matter of fact, in reply to Mr. Li, the exact wording which I used was that "the main causes of the present disturbances still lie with the economic and social factors". It is my belief that we cannot avoid our responsibility to improve and further improve our economic and social conditions, and the contention of my motion is that, in future, we should not face this problem single-handed. We
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our nose to the grindstone, work out the local organization and aim towards it. I do not think that by paying visits to London, New York or Chicago, we will improve the relationship between the Government and the people at local Government level.
I feel there is a slight trace of incongruity in the working of this particular motion. It almost seems as if the motion was drafted by more than one person. So, with these remarks, Mr. Chairman, I think this motion should be passed to the proper Select Committee which we have created for such purpose, and I second that the motion be re- ferred to the Select Committee on Local Administration.
CHAIRMAN:-Before I call for a vote on the motion by Mr. SALES to refer this motion to the appropriate Select Committee, namely, the Select Committee on Local Administration, I think perhaps I should make a few remarks in order to clarify our Record of Proceedings.
My first point is that when I considered this motion submitted by Mr. Hu, I felt very much the same as Mr. Wilfred WONG. I jotted down in my notes on which to speak, "Is the motion misconceived? Have the proposer and seconder convinced the Council that developing and promotion a closer relationship between the City of Hong Kong and other big cities of the world will help the Urban Council either to discharge its statutory duties better or to establish closer liaison with the people of the urban areas of Hong Kong?" This is the first question.
The second point simply concerns a point of clarification. The text of the motion mentions the City of Hong Kong. There is no such thing.
My third point concerns the question: does it lie in the power of the Urban Council to take the action proposed? We do not represent the City of Victoria, which incidentally does exist, nor the City of Kowloon which does not exist. We are responsible for certain aspects of administration in the urban areas. We are not a local authority yet, in spite of what Mr. BERNACCHI has said. There is no municipality as such here, and although we have aspirations, we must now deal with realities. Not only have we no authority for making approaches to other cities to establish closer relationships with them, but there would be, if we made this approach, a need to define our own position for them, so that they would not be misled into thinking that we had more to offer than we in fact have. I wonder what would be their reaction on learning that we are not a local authority or a municipality?
I think this motion has some reference to a fairly well established practice, particularly common with American cities, and also Canadian and Japanese cities, of selecting another overseas city to be one's twin city, and friendly letters are exchanged, visits exchanged and a special
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135
relationship is built up. But I have not heard that any city proliferates this practice thereby debasing, as it were, the coinage that it has to offer. This motion suggests special relationships with a number of cities. I think in any case we might be limited by world practice to a relationship with one city.
It is the object of these remarks, therefore, to suggest that no action such as the proposer proposed in his motion is possible under our present constitutional position, and it is for this reason that I support the motion proposed by Mr. SALES, under Standing Order 10(17)(j), that the subject of the debate be referred to or back to a Committee, namely, the Committee on Local Administration.
MR. LI:-Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the motion proposed by Mr. SALES and seconded by Mr. WONG. In doing so, I should like to speak on certain remark made by Mr. Hu in his speech. He said that the recent disturbances were, if I remember correctly, caused by social and economic factors. I am not sure whether I remember his speech correctly. If I remember it correctly, I should like to dissociate myself from that remark, because as far as I know, the reasons for the disturbances were not connected at all with any social or economic factors in Hong Kong. They were engineered by people who have an axe to grind and who want to get us into trouble. With these few remarks, Mr. Chairman, I support the motion to refer the original motion to a Select Committee.
CHAIRMAN: Mr. Hu, on a motion of this kind you have a right of reply at this stage.
MR. HU: Mr. Chairman, I anticipated difficulty in carrying this motion through in this Council, but it is surprising to learn that we, the Urban Council, which has existed for nearly fifteen years, has still not even achieved an equal status with other cities of the world.
On the point raised by you, Mr. Chairman, and Mr. WONG, about the relationship of my motion and the statutory duty of the Urban Council, I would say this, that without peace and stability, how can we carry out our resettlement projects and our projects to improve our city. If the present conditions are not to be improved, as some mem- bers in question time did raise, then should we in Hong Kong still face the situation single-handed in future? We must co-operate with other cities of the world to help us to solve our economic and social problems. As a matter of fact, in reply to Mr. Li, the exact wording which I used was that "the main causes of the present disturbances still lie with the economic and social factors". It is my belief that we cannot avoid our responsibility to improve and further improve our economic and social conditions, and the contention of my motion is that, in future, we should not face this problem single-handed. We
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