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Endsaure 4. J.
The Hongkong Telegraph.
HONGKONG, FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 1917.
THE EXCLUSION OF GERMANS.
Few people, if any, will be surprised at the fact that the Hon. Mr. Holyoak's motion, in favour of the exclusion of Germans from the Colony for a period of ten years after the war, has been rejected by the Legislative Council. It is an open wecret that neither the mover of the resolution nor those who supported it expected that it would be passed. But, in bringing it forward and in fearlessly expressing their views concerning the Kaiser and bis subjects, they have performed an set which we feel sure will win them a very wide measure of public approbation. We shall, indeed, be surpris- ed if the matter is allowed to reat where it now lies, for we venture to think that if a plebiscite of the whole Colony were taken it would be found that the policy so eloquently pleaded by Messrs. Holyoak, Anton and Pollock would bave overwhelming support. If that be lief is well founded, then yesterday's decision of the Legislative Connoil means nothing else than this-that the Colony has been muzzled by the body named, and that it is not to be permitted to express its opinions on what is the most vital local aspect of the wat. In that connection, it is worth remembering that, of the nine mem. bera who voted against the resolution, seven were Official representa- tiree.
In looking at this matter it is well that we should keep con- stantly before as the fact that the supportere of the resolution were not asking the Council to pass legislation embodying the idea ex- pressed therein: they merely desired that the Council should con. frm the motion as sa expression of its opinion, and there they were In other words, they sought to willing to allow the matter to rest, let the Imperial authorities kuow what the Colony of Hongkong thought on the post-war treatment of enemy subjects. That point, which appeare not to have been' fully grasped by the Official ele- ment, cannot be too strongly emphasised. However anpalatable the viewe set forth in the resolution may have been to the Official members-even if they were wholly impracticable-surely the Colony had a right to demand that on a question like this its opinions should be laid before the Home Government. To deny that Coming right is to place Hongkong under an absolute autoorkoy,
to the objections raised to the proposal, the one thing which will most strike the public eye is that the principal of these was that to discriminate against German abips and German business after the war would be to do infioite harm to the port. We should have thought that the business men of the Colony were the best judges on a point like that. At any rate, the motion came to the Council with the 'unanimous backing of the Chamber of Commerce, and, what is more, it was openly stated by the representative of the Chamber that British men of commetoe were convinced that they could meet possible German competition from new contres and were prepared to face it. That is an effective answer to those who argue that German trade is essential to the development of the Colonya contention that any Britisher should be ashamed to advance. Que could not help detecting in the remarks of those who opposed the resolution an underlying suggestion that, while business men might be trusted to manage commercial matters well enough, they were out of their element in dabbling with questions of imperial politice, which ebould be left "But we would take leave to point out in the hands of "atatesmen.' that this is the era of the business man. The Empire has had about enough of the professional politician, and it is not without its significance that, in the hour of its greatest trial, it has called to the inner councile of the nation men of commerce-men who are unlikely to be influenced by a sickly sentimentality which would greet the Hun barbarians as brothers immediately the war is over.
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