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items have been fumigated; and a further one thousand and one hundred items were treated to reinstate the sound condition for display.

Extension Activities

All the museums organised a wide range of related extension activities to stimulate and promote public interest in the various fields of arts, history and science. It is very encouraging to note that these activities were well supported and many were over-subscribed.

Conclusion

To conclude, I should like on behalf of the Museums Select Committee, to gratefully thank our many Honorary Advisers for their continuous and unfail- ing services and further to all the staff of the USD also who are working in the Museums Services for the tremendous dedication and hard work and their ex- tremely fruitful efforts.

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra

Secondary, as Chairman of Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues in the Council for making a most welcome decision of allowing the Urban Council to become the sole public funding body of Hong Kong Philharmonic. This will ensure the financial well- being of the Orchestra in the future and thus allow it to develop with confidence and to better serve the public at large. Furthermore, I would like to thank on behalf of all the members of Urban Council served on the General Committee of Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Ladies Philharmonic for the latest and most magnificent effort of organizing a unique and successful fund-raising event, the Vienna Opera Ball to help the Orchestra. Such continuous support of the Ladies Committee as well as from other sponsors of private sector are most welcome and appreciated in the future.

With these words, I support the motion.

MR. WALTER M. SULKE (in English):—Before I go on to this speech, may I first of all say how very sorry I am to learn that some of our present elected members do not intend to stand again for re-election. I can well understand their reason as most of them will have to fight three election campaigns within three years, two within less than one year, and we did point out to the Government that this would be unacceptable when our members were forced to stand for District Boards. However, those not willing to stand are among our brightest elected members and we shall miss them greatly, and I would herewith in public ask them to think again and run, please, Mrs. Cнow and Mr. LEE Chik-yuet, because we shall miss you if are not here in the next session and we will need as much continuity and experience as possible to keep this Council going in its new and somewhat unwieldy configuration.

Secondly, may I make an appeal to all members: I am sure you all remember our 'Smoking' debate last month. Since that Debate some of you who voted against my motion have come up to me and told me that they were very sym- pathetic to what I was trying to achieve but were against the method which I

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used. Well, I guess I am not a very good politician. I go straight for what I think is necessary and should be done, so I very often tread on many peoples' toes. However, in this particular case the vote was very close and the general senti- ment by some members absent from the Debate expressed since indicates that if they had been present we might have even carried my motion. Can I therefore appeal to this Council and to the Department, without upsetting the policy, to seriously consider not to let a company whose name is also the name of a cigarette sponsor the opening Arts Festival of our Cultural Centre at the end of this year, which will be attended by royalty and many notables. This would be a grand gesture which I am sure would be appreciated by the public, and also by those attending our Festival.

now

It is a tradition that Chairmen of Select Committees during this debate report on their activities, but Finance was well covered in my two yearly budget speeches. However, I would like to say a few short words about the Keep Hong Kong Clean campaign. This year I have been chairing the Joint Urban/Regional Council Steering Committee and I think this Committee is a grand example of how, without any Central Government interference or hold- ing of hands being necessary, the two Municipal Councils cooperate when they have a common aim.

After the study trip of one senior member of the Department and myself to the U.S., Australia and New Zealand we decided to move the then 15 year old campaign into the greener fields of private sector cooperation, and I am very happy to report that after very small beginnings in 1987, in 1988 this cooper- ation really flowered. We have 42 companies helping us this year, some with small bits of advertising, but other with really grand physical gestures of cleaning up in front of their premises, of adopting venues to clean, organizing charity cleanings in Country Parks etc. etc.. As elsewhere, especially in the U.S., also the Armed Forces have been pitching in and have been helping us greatly in the campaign. This is obviously the right way to go and the ultimate aim should be to have these campaigns run by the private sector, not by the Government or the Municipal Councils. There are many instances in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand where this change was made and proved very beneficial. Naturally, cooperation of the Government Departments will still be necessary.

And while I am on the subject, let me please remind the Central Government that still nothing much is being done about cleaning our Harbour. Two years ago I was the only civilian member of a Government Working Party in- vestigating how the Harbour got so dirty and what to do about it. We submit- ted conclusions which needed some spending of money. Since then very little has happened, and I am afraid very little will happen as long as the cleaning of the Harbour responsibility rests with the Marine Department. The Marine Department is not structured to take care of this responsibility, nor are they particularly interested. And why should they be? They are sea captains and marinc surveyors and not hygiene orientated the way we are, and so the