pay Crown rent, they were prepared to waive all claims for "war rent" accruing due in the period from the commencement of local hostilities until the liberation of the Colony.
A further difficulty arising out of the Japanese Occupation has been dealt with by the enactment of the Enforcement of Rights (Extension of Time) Ordinance, 1948, which is an Ordinance to extend the period during which legal proceedings may be instituted and rights may be exercised. Applications of the principle of law inherent in the Latin maxim "vigilantibus et non dor- mientibus lex succurrit" would have resulted in grave injustice where the passage of time corresponded with a period of hostilities, enforced absence, internment and other similar circumstances. including the existence of a Moratorium which rendered it impossible to have recourse to the Courts. The Ordinance, therefore, excludes the principle of law in so far as the occupation period is concerned and modifies its applicability in relation to the period between the close of the period of Japanese Occupation and the enactment of the Ordinance.
Another difficulty which the Japanese Occupation produced has also been dealt with by the Occupation Marriages (Validity) Ordinance, 1948, which is an Ordinance designed to remove doubts as to the validity of certain marriages celebrated after the Japanese capture of the Colony.
Legislation enacted during 1948 which was necessary by reason of changed conditions and new problems confronting the Colony in the post-war period has been of substantial volume. In this category may be included the Banking Ordinance, 1948. The Ordinance provides for the regulation and licensing of the business of banking consequent on altered conditions prevailing in the commercial life of the Colony and conditions in China entailing a large increase in the number of persons or organisations in the Colony doing business in the nature of banking business. Among such organisations were "banks" having inadequate capital or conducting banking business of no value to the Colony since they were engaged in speculation or in the infringement of trade or exchange control regulations both of the Chinese Government and of the Colony. The Ordinance is designed to counter such tendencies by imposing control and licensing upon the business of banking.
The Smuggling into China (Control) Ordinance, 1948, is an Ordinance which gives effect to a Customs agreement negotiated by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom and the Chinese National Government on behalf of the Hong Kong Government and the Chinese Maritime Customs respectively. For many years owing to the high customs duties prevailing and, in
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