117
19. These regulations do not in general affect the entrepot trade so much as the miscellaneous activities of the community and the ordinary life of the citizen. Strong representations were, however, made in respect of one deficiency in the commercial law of the Colony, namely, lack of any provision for the registration of partnerships. Traders within and without the Colony constantly suffer losses when debtor firms disappear and their proprietors cannot be legally identified. We are well aware of the difficulties compulsory registration would involve in this cosmo- politan community and consequently confine ourselves to urging the Government to compel all firms to signify on their letter headings or advertisements whether they are or are not officially registered, although registrations should still remain optional as hitherto. This would at any rate indicate the possibly ephemeral nature of a trading firm to its correspondents.
20. As already emphasised, we approached our task with no preconceived views on economic doctrine and were quite prepared to consider the merits of protection either for local industries or for Imperial products, subsidies, Government monopolies of certain products, or any of the other forms of State control of trade that have been introduced elsewhere. Though we reject them in toto as impractic- able in Hong Kong we would be prepared to relent to a minor degree in respect of one industry only, agriculture. The lack of balance between agriculture and com- merce is now universally recognised as a modern evil to be redressed. Admittedly Hong Kong can do very little in this respect, but the Government should take active steps to remedy the position by implementing as soon as possible the recommendations of the Pigs and Poultry Committee and effecting a greater degree of social and economic stability by making the Colony more self-supporting.
21. It will have been observed that from this Report much detail has been excluded. The evidence, memoranda and minutes which form three bulky typescript volumes have been communicated to Government and the Report may be taken as a general survey thereof to which our own opinions have been added. While a much more detailed Report might possibly be more interesting to read, the production of such would be a physical impossibility for the Commission constituted as it is of men who are all actively engaged in various business and Governmental activities.