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convey in that speech. I meant to say that the Registrar General "should not ask Chinese singly and individually to come to his office, "but I never intended that the Registrar General should not have the "Chinese assembled in his office and discuss matters openly. That has "been done, though not in this Committee, [i.e., the Committee of the "Pó Leung Kuk] because we have not yet appointed a Committee, and "I do not know whether in former times it has been done, but I do know, "since I have been a member of the District Watchmen Committee, that "we discuss and decide by the vote of the majority, and I venture to "believe that, though sometimes the Registrar General has been in the "minority, he thinks that his dignity has not been affected and that it
was not derogatory to his high position to be out-voted."
17. The remarks of Dr. Ho KAI, as Mr. WHITEHEAD states, are not wholly pertinent to the present subject, but used as they have been, entirely apart from their context, they are quite misleading. As a matter of fact, Mr. WHITEHEAD wished to place the Registrar General over and above the Committee of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, or, in the words of Dr. Ho KAI, "to place them under the thumb of the Registrar General." Both the Registrar General and Dr. Ho KAI successfully opposed Mr. WHITEHEAD on the occasion in question, and objected to the Chinese being placed in such a position.
18. The following extracts from Hansard pp. 90-93, 1893, are interesting in view of Mr. WHITEHEAD's present attitude :-
"Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD: I say the Registrar General has "exercised a wise control which has been very desirable and which has "also been very effective; and I think it would be a great pity if that "control should be given up and disappear.'
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"The REGISTRAR GENERAL :-I say again that the Registrar General "does not want to be placed in the position of the dictator of the Chinese "and it is no use for the Honourable Member who represents the Chamber "of Commerce to fence with words. That is undoubtedly the position "he wishes to place the Registrar General in.”
"Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD :-They have said themselves that "their object is to put the Registrar General under their thumb; in fact, "to control the Registrar General."
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"Honourable Ho Kar:-I think that our leading Chinese would "prefer to be placed continually under an intelligent official rule rather "than be placed under the unreasonable and illiberal treatment of an "unofficial régime.”
19, Paragraph 12.—Mr. WHITEHEAD states that the Registrar General's Department was entrusted with powers somewhat similar to those in the present Ordinance in connection with brothels, and so abused those powers that after enquiry they were taken away by Ordinance 2 of 1876.
This statement is quite misleading. So far from the powers of the Registrar General's Department having been curtailed they have been considerably increased since 1876. Indeed, the Ordinance for the Protection of Women and Children conferred greater powers on the Registrar General than he had ever possessed before.
Mr. WHITEHEAD must surely remember that, in view of the great and un- usual powers conferred on the Registrar General by that Ordinance, it was considered necessary to renew the Ordinance from time to time by resolution of the Legisla tive Council, because he was a member of Council when such resolutions were brought before Council and passed. After that Ordinance had been in force for