Bulletin Autumn 1988

noteworthy that many are moving at varying speeds toward the Hong Kong position, is the extent to which we rely on private effort to provide the in iti ative, leadership, management and some part o f the financial resources to meet the basic needs and essen tial services o f a caring society. This Hong Kong tradi tion, which began well over a century ago w ith the founding o f hospitals and schools, has now developed into a highly intricate network o f organizations pro viding education, medical services and the very many special requirements o f a complex modern society. These organizations involve many thousands o f volun tary workers and their supporting staffs; the govern ment supports, subvents and subsidizes but stays in the background and tries not to interfere. The system is dynamic, its drive comes from w ithin the commun ity by sensitive perception o f what is needed by people who are themselves concerned. The system is not perfect but it has many merits: bureaucracy is kept to a minimum and attitudinizing put to one side; it requires, o f course, inherent recognition by the government o f the invaluable service provided by voluntary effort and awillingness positively to support it. It would be a sad day for Hong Kong should these organizations be allowed to wither away to be replaced by armies o f civil servants and a multitude o f public sector institutions. These then are three important auxiliaries o f consensus government, which have been largely i f not totally ignored in the debates o f the last few years about Hong Kong's future political structure. They are district administration, policy advisory committees and the role o f the private and voluntary sector in the provision o f services vital to the health o f our com munity. Perhaps it is assumed they w ill simply survive because they are there, but we should not automati cally assume this, more especially when we are making progressive and far-reaching changes to the political structure to which they respond and correspond. More thought needs to be given to their role in the future, or at least some recognition that these are features o f our Hong Kong polity which we would like to see retained and adapted to meet the require­ ments o f the political system as it continues to unfold. We must have confidence in our ability to find solu tions, but they must be our own solutions and we should not forget how we reached this particular moment in history, how we achieved this level o f progress. I began this address w ith my recollections o f Yuen Long nearly th irty years ago, and before I finish I should like to return for a moment to Yuen Long. Yuen Long, the people o f Yuen Long and its leaders, exemplifies many o f the points I have made in these few words. There is a strong sense o f com­ munity in Yuen Long, there is a tradition o f service and self-help and the people are robust in their criti­ cisms and advice. It is true that w ith all these advan­ tages and, i f I may say so, the benefits o f district administration, that Yuen Long has prospered, but it is sad to see among the evident prosperity that the water in the river is black, the rice fields now a reposi­ tory for abandoned cars and other debris o f that hard won prosperity and, that despite the railway and the widened roads, the environment is congested and the air polluted. I would like to end w ith a few words from a poem which Christopher Fry wrote about the preservation o f the city o f Chichester - - ‘ "Alas" is easily said; but no sigh pays the cost O f dignity destroyed and beauty lost. And nothing then can reinstate A city that he cared about too la t e .' In Hong Kong we have begun to care about these things and it is —just - not too late! 14