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Const. Dew. Ws.
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GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG.
Do Carter
Dear / lan
کا
? A copy Mr. Dochehon
76
26th May, 1965.
4/6
We have recently been giving some thought at official level, and very discreetly, to the general and interconnected issues of the future of the Urban Council, the administration of new towns in the New Territories of which Tsuen Wan raises the most immediate problems, and local government generally. A point has now been reached when I think I ought to consult you before proceeding any further, since the whole subject as well as being one of extreme complexity, is in one or two respects somewhat delicate.
I will first try to sketch in the background briefly, although you will be familiar with much of it. In 1954 we deferred certain proposals for the establishment of local authorities (see Executive Council minute No. 50 of 14th December, 1954 item A5) on the grounds that there was no pressure for their establishment at the moment, that it would be advantageous to allow a further interval in which Rural Committees might gain experience, and that it might be embarrassing if wider powers of government were granted to the people of the New Territories than to the more advanced residents of the urban areas. Since then, for excellent reasons, such evolution in local government methods as has occurred has proceeded more or less ad hoc: and at the moment we have the Urban Council, on whose constitution, functions and ambitions I think I need not elaborate; the Heung Yee Kuk
W.I.J. Wallace, Esq., C.M.G., O.B.E.,
Colonial Office,
London.
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