Documents on the issue I think the three Reports (the majority Report signed by Messrs. Lockhart, Hokai & May and that of W. Whitehead) give a true history of the facts of the case, & I have pencilled in the margin of those Reports where I differ from or agree with their several recommendations. They all agree in generally supporting the main objects of the Ordinance as passed; but Mr. Whitehead in his Minority Report, & in his Protest (in 13438) urges amendment in certain points, of which I think he is most certainly in the right.
I submit that ss. 6 & 9 give the Board of Direction, of which the Registrar General is only the President with a casting vote, absolute power, uncontrolled by the Governor. The Governor cannot interfere by dismissing a member or members of the Committee (see s. 15) or by repealing this Ordinance (see s. 14). With Messrs. Chater & Whitehead, I do not agree that the Registrar General ought not to be a Member of the Committee, because there are manifest practical advantages in his being present at their discussions. But if he is President, I agree with Mr. Chater that he ought not to be able to reverse decisions of the Committee by his veto. The veto ought to rest with the Governor, and the solution of the difficulty seems to me contained in the suggestion made on p. vice- the Majority Report, viz. that there should be a right of appeal to the Governor in cases of difference of opinion between the President & Committee (such as arose in par. 24 question; see also Mr. Whitehead's protest in 13438).
There is no need to specify the President "cases might arise." A question, such as whether girls may be officially given as second wives to a Chinaman, such a question ought not to be decided by a majority of the Committee. I direct that the Ordinance be amended by adding such words as - "provided that in any case in which the Board is divided in opinion any member may demand that the point be referred to the Governor for his decision which shall be final," and s. 6 by inserting after "hereinafter" the words "subject to an appeal to the Governor in certain cases as provided."
The other point in which the