ENG-1966 — Page 46

REVIEW

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of consistency in our different social policies. We cannot expect that our struggles to ensure a proper relationship between quantity and quality can be relegated to the corridors of memory. We have, too, to recognize that we may not necessarily receive, in the future, assistance from other countries on the scale on which it has been available in the past. What we have received has been immensely useful and greatly appreciated, and we may hope earnestly that the interest of other countries in Hong Kong will continue and will be given practical expression in continued support. But the signs are not lacking that the needs of others are beginning to claim the attention of the donor countries.

Possibly we must also be prepared to adapt our planning methods more closely to the end purpose of building a community rather than to that of merely providing a range of services, and at the same time endeavour to make a more coherent social policy than present methods can do. The preceding pages will show how plan- ning has entered into our affairs to an extent that, before 1956, would not have appeared possible. It seems certain that the problems and conflicts of the future will call for more planning, and more sophisticated planning. If this will help to produce a community well adjusted to its environment and its responsibilities, it must be a welcome trend. But it is a trend that must not develop at the sacrifice, on the altar of planning, of that capacity for producing quick practical and effective results, in the possession of which perhaps even our critics will allow Hong Kong to take a modest pride.