A Candidate's Advice Of the various election addresses istled by candidates for election to the Municipal Coun cil quite one of the most important is that given four by Mr. J. W. Carney, one of the. two JAmerican candidates. In it he succinctly replies to some of the criticisms which have been made of the manner in which the Council has conducted the business of administering international Settlement, and. defends [Council against the allegations of extravagant Atter showing the reduction in the foreign personnel in the municipal stof and that despite leon siderable increase in the police force, Mr. [Carney goes on to say:
Wolleve that it fs against the interests of avers to permit any impalement of our jeesmfurther we "havea Moral fire departments. afford yok then the. bill for ust be thet. it appears 'Connell musi' iniprove. Ite lelty department to offset the attacks which made upon tone of the most astonishing features of the spate of correspondence which during the last [few days has been published in these columns is the amazing amount of misconception there appears to be in the minds of many regarding leven the simplest facts concerning the admini-[stration, and it is impossible to avoid the con-delusion that the Council is not well served in the matter of publicity. Some nine years ago it was sought to remedy this state of affairs which was apparent then by the appointment of a Press Information OMicer and a small staff, the general impression was formed that, though the Council had been obliged reluctantly to take this step, the department was never very popular with' the various other departments, and when in 1936 the economy axe was being enthuslastieally wielded, this new department [was amongst the frst to go. Such publicity as the Council has since issued has been handled a member of the staff of the Secretariat, and ino criticism of him is intended when it Is' said that it was never very satisfactory, chiefly duc to the paucity of material he was, allowed to Jaive out. That and the secrecy which has continually surrounded the doings of the Council has permitted a great deal of misunderstanding to fause with the result that there is a substantial portion of the voting ratepayers completely out fof sympathy with the Council. That is indeed putting it mildly, for in some cases it appears amount almost to an inveterate distrust. The policy of the Council should be not "how little shall we tell the ratepayers, but how much can jwe?" If the impression gained ground that the [Council was taking the public into its confidence Jas much as it possibly could a generally better atmosphere would result from the removal of much misunderstanding. It will be seen now that the abolition of the Press Information Bureau in 1996 was a major error leading to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.