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studies. Sending staff for overseas study tours with the Council's money can also serve as an incentive to encourage staff to work more zealously. Competition means more efficient working performance. The regulations for sending outstanding staff for overseas study tours are therefore necessary.

(iii) As for staff welfare, I propose to set up a staff welfare institution to deal with all matters concerning the promotion of staff welfare: (a) to grant an additional living allowance; and (b) to build residential houses for Urban Council staff through concerted effort. If the Council can solve the problem of suitable sites, it can achieve twice the result with half the effort in setting up Urban Services Estates. If staff welfare is promoted, not only will the staff remain in their jobs peacefully, without quitting and switching to new jobs, industrial action will also be stamped out for good. This is really hitting two birds with one stone.

(iv) Confronted by the soaring land price of today, the Council has the right to ask the government to allocate more land to it for diversified development. I cannot but reiterate my proposed reclamation scheme which I put forth a few years ago. There is utilization only when land is available. And, under this principle, whether land can be best utilized wholly depends on the capability of the planners. As the Council is staffed by so many efficient officers, it has the prerequisite for a prospect of development on which we have high hopes. In spite of the Council's financial difficulties, it can still be self-sufficient and does not have to frown in the face of construction costs. With its financial autonomy, the Council can even acquire information for co-ordination and planning. Planning its revenue according to its expenditure is the principle for the Government's budget, and it is believed that the Finance Committee can shoulder the onerous task to fulfil its responsibilities. Finally, I hope that the Council will work hard to solve the basic issues of dwelling, travel, food, and clothing for the people, promote efficient urban services, and benefit the public as a whole.

I support the motion put forward at this Annual Convention Debate.

MR. B. A. BERNACCHI (in English): Mr. Chairman, as apparently Mr. MACKENZIE's attack on elected members was his own swan song, I will not rise to answer his speech but stick to my own speech.

Mr. Chairman, I am very worried about inflation. I know that it is partly due to the increased price of oil, and we in Hong Kong can do little to alter a worldwide trend in this respect. However, in Hong Kong, this inflation is aggravated by the high cost of land, which in turn makes rentals spiral upwards; also, with the shortage of public housing, people on the waiting list have no prospect of a home in the foreseeable future. I know that severe limitations have recently been proposed in the Legislative Council on a landlord and tenant basis. But this is only one aspect of the whole position.

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The shortage of land still continues, and yet there should not be such a shortage. There are large tracts of Crown land in the New Territories that could be made available for sale by the Government so that land prices are not increased by a self-induced scarcity of availability of land, particularly in the New Territories. I had the honour of being a member of a very early Housing Committee, which in fact proposed the establishment of the original Housing Authority. One of its other proposals was that building land should not be sold unless and until it had been prepared for building and access roads laid out. The Government largely adopted these proposals in the early 50s, but the position has considerably changed by the early 80s. There is not the staff in Government to prepare the land, let alone lay out the feeder roads. Therefore, to make large tracts of land available for sale, any question of preparing will have to be abandoned. Again, I know of no elsewhere in the world that has introduced a system of Letter A and B land, which is merely a documentary right to obtain an exchange of land in the future. These documents are now sold for extraordinarily high prices, but if ever the whole of the Letter A and Letter B right holders got together and claimed their right all at one time, the Government would really not know where to turn.

Then there is public housing land and buildings. It was false economy last year to deliberately cut down on this programme, and the fact that it was cut down played a part in the ever-increasing inflation. Almost 10 years ago, the Governor promised houses in the public housing section for everyone inside 10 years. But yet there are still literally millions of people waiting for housing and have been waiting for houses for a very long time. The need for housing is so severe that not only do I hope it is not the subject of cuts this financial year, but also indeed that more money is made available for public housing next financial year to make up for the losses that the Housing Authority has suffered in the present one.

Then there is business and industrial premises. To keep inflation down, I submit that they must also be subject to rent control and protection against eviction. Many small businesses have had to close down, and many not-so-small factories have had to close up. At present, we are lucky to have sufficient jobs for our workers, but if inflation is not checked, this may change overnight, and we be faced with an enormous problem of unemployment resulting in industrial disturbances.

I also cry out for more money to be spent on medical services. What medical services the Government has are very good, but they are utterly inadequate. Queues for treatment at hospitals are enormous. Even an X-ray appointment is weeks ahead. Hospital beds are at a premium, and now there is more than a suggestion that the supply of drugs will run out before the end of the financial year with no money to buy further supplies. Yet I bet you that we shall end up with the usual large surplus, and everyone will pat Philip HADDON-CAVE on the back and say 'Good boy, he has done it again'. I say 'Bad boy for not spending what is budgeted for'. Indeed,

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