The first reading of a Bill is, as the memorialist should be aware having repeatedly been informed of it, a mere matter of form. He moved that the first reading should be adjourned until the Hongkong public had "read, considered, and digested the report of the Committee, and the evidence taken by them." These with the appendices extend to some 300 pages, and I question whether ten persons in Hongkong outside the Executive Council will have read, considered and digested them by this day ten years.
In paragraph 8 it is alleged that the Bill was forced through Committee, and that I said in effect that discussion was useless, as my Council, in other words the whole of the official majority had made up their minds on the subject.