No. 131.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
In GR1178/1922/32(III)
228
The subjoined Translation of a Notice addressed to the Chinese Inhabitants on the subject of Mr CALDWELL'S recent appointment as Registrar General, and on the necessity of a system of Registration, is published for general information.
By Order,
W. T. MERCER, Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Victoria, Hongkong, 4th December, 1856.
CALDWELL, (Official Title, &c., &c.)
Whereas His Excellency the Governor of this Colony has been pleased to appoint Mr Caldwell, Registrar General and Protector of Chinese residing in Hongkong, this is to give notice to the Chinese Community, that in all cases in which they have difficulty in understanding the law as here administered, or conceive themselves to have wrongs for which they are otherwise unable to obtain redress, they are at liberty to apply between the hours of 10 and 4, at Mr Caldwell's office, next to the Police Station, or in cases of special emergency at his house in Gough Street.
And whereas it is expedient for the protection of the good citizen that vagrancy should be as much as possible brought under restraint, it is at the same time desirable that any system of registration having that object in view should be so contrived as to attain it with the least possible inconvenience to those whom it is intended to benefit. No levy of charge or fee is contemplated, and the respectable Inhabitants of the City are invited at their earliest convenience to depute members of their community, either to wait on Mr Caldwell and state what they may have to say in person, or to submit to him in writing such details and suggestions as may enable him, with the aid of his own experience, to devise a system which shall work effectively, but, at the same time, without undue restriction or annoyance.