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means of sustenance required, by arranging for a reference
te Officials charged, on receiving an application from a
Ship-master, with the duty of investigating an alien's
right to land, the disembarkation of passengers on arrival
would have to be hampered or there would be difficulty in
preventing a beachcomber from avoiding a muster and slip-
-ping on shore. A staff of men of tact and discernment
would have to be added to the Police Force in sufficient
numbers to deal with the simultaneous arrival of 3 or 4
ships carrying passengers, as at times occurs, and the cost
of such a staff would be many times the amount involved by
the occasional muleting of a Ship-master or Agent for the
wilful breach of the Vagrancy Ordinance as now in force.
6.
Since this Ordinance was enacted
on the 22nd. June, 1905, only one case has occurred in
which the cost of a vagrant's subsistence has been recover-
-ed under it. This case was that of a man of the name of
Ermhold for whom a passage to Hongkong by a ship of the
Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes was taken by the Swiss
Benevolent Society at Shanghai. The Agents of the Company
have not disputed their liability under the Ordinance.
77.
It was anticipated when the
Ordinance
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