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65 „REG 15 JUN 151
O...
REPORT
on the Revised Draft of the Asiatic Emigration Bill.
413360714
1. The Secretary of State's despatch of the 28th April, 1914, appears to amount to an approval of the form which the Asiatic Emigration Bill had reached at that late. A further consileration of the Bill has disclosed the apparent necessity or advisability of certain minor alterations, and these altera- tions are now embodied in a revised draft which bears the printers' date of the 23rd April, 1915. The object of this report is to explain the reasons for these alterations, which are indicated by means of italies and square brackets.
2. Clause 2-(a) The classification into "emigrant ships" and "British emigrant ships" was open to the following objections:-
() It left no generic term correspondling to the old term "Chinese
passenger ship".
(i) It excluded from the term "British emigrant ship" British ships
taking emigrants from Hongkong.
(i) It gave rise to difficulties of expression in such passages as Regulations 16, 17 and 18 of the Fourth Schedule and Regula- tion G of the Sixth Schedule, difficulties which the former draft seems to have failed to surmount.
The classification does not appear in any existing legislation and it is proposed to adopt instead a classification of "emigrant ships" into "Hongkong emigrant ships" and "outport emigrant ships". This has involved striking out the words "or British emigrant ship" in number of clauses throughout the Bill and schedules, altering "British" to "outport" in other places, and chang- ing the wording of Regulation 16 of the Fourth Schedule and of Regulation 6 of the Sixth Schedule.
(b) In the definition of "outport emigrant ship" words have been inserted in order to made it quite clear that the ports referred to do not include Hong- kong. A similar change has been made in clause 12.
3. Clause 4 (3). The marginal note has been altered to make it agree with the general terms of the sub-clause. The form in the Ordinance is to be substituted in all cases and not only "in certain cases".
4. Clause 5-"and" has been altered to "or" in the second last line of this clause as the disjunctive form seems preferable.
5. Clause 10.-The former draft contained no forms of licence. These have now been added in an Eleventh Schedule and are referred to in sub-clause (2) of this clause.
6. Clause 12.--The alteration in this clause has been explained in para- graph 2(b) above.
for
7. Clause 13.-(e) "Between any specified ports" has been substituted to and from any specified port", as the former agrees better with the form of licence at present in use, and gives slightly more restrictive powers: see also the old clause 18 (2) (6).
(b) The reference to the carriage of free emigrants only is omitted as the prohibition is a general one for all licences, and it is therefore better dealt with in a general section: see the new clause 17.
8. Clause 14.-The words "between any specified ports" have been in- serted with a view to the current form of licence and because they give slightly greater power of regulation: see also the old clause 18 (2) (6).
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