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ter); Thomas Cook & Co. (J. Bentley); Union has been said, it was said in Council, Insurance Society of Canton, Ltd. (C. Mon- that the appeal made was largely on tague Ede); United Asbestos Oriental based on sentiment and was one which Agency, Ltd. (A. Ritchie); Union Trading ignored economic facts. In the first place, Co. (9. M Churn); Union Waterboat Co., gentlemen, it is impossible in connection Ltd. (G. Morton Smith); Vacuum Oil Co. with this war to ignore sentiment. (Ap (C. C. Stark); A. S. Watson Co., Ltd. (H. plause.) The entry of England into this Humphreys): Wilkinson & Grist (C. E. H war in the very first place was entirely and Beavis); Harry Wicking & Co. (A. Forbes); absolutely due to sentiment, namely, that C. E. Warren & Co. (CE. Warron); B. Mon- we should fulfil our treaty obligations to the teith Webb & Co. (B. Monteith Webb); | nation of Belgium. (Applause.) And, gen Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltzt. (E, Ono); Yuentlemen, it is impossible to conceive that as Hop Hong (S. H. Leung); and Mr. E. A. M. Williams (Secretary).
The Hon. Mr. HOLYOAK, who was loudly applauded as he entered the room, and also when he rose to speak, said:-As it is past the hour for which this meeting was calleci I will proceed to address the menting upon the subject for which you have been callerl together this afternoon. Briefly it is this. That a resolution which was unanimously lopted by your elected Committee was re- jected in the Legislative Council, and we have now brought it before this meeting to The endorse or not as seems fitting to you. resolution which I have to propose, and which in substance is identically the same as that proposed in the Legislative Council in your name, is as follows:-"It is the opinion of the Chamber that it is in the best interest of the Colony of Hongkong that persons of German nationality should be ex- cluded therefrom for a period of at least ten years following the declaration of peace; and, that, subsequently, they be only admit ted into the Colony under strict licence." Now, gentlemen, we contend that, speaking on behalf of the Chamber, there was not the slightest noed on the part of the Government to debate this resolution. (Applause.) It was largely academic, it did not seek legisla- tion, it merely asked that the considered, and carefully consider, opinion of your elected Committee should be put before the authorities at Home, who are shortly to meet to consider this very question. We claim that we have a right to a voice, inasmuch as while the greater Colonies will be represent. ed directly by their own representatives, we As a Crown Colony will be represented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and therefore a direct pronunciation from this Chamber in no uncertain manner should be sent Home, quite apart from Government despatches and recommendations which might not be known to us. Now, gentlemen, we further contend that this resolution was never seriously discussed by the Government in Council, and that His Excellency's speech, if it was not flippant in argument, was at any rate unfortunate, to say the least of it, in its choice of language. "(Hear, hear.) It
result of this war sentiment in connection with it will die down for many years to come, and therefore we cannot afford to ignore it. (Applause) You will notice that I am endeavouring in presenting this case tu present it without passion, and to deal with it calmly and logically as it presents itself. to your Committee, and as I trust it will appeal to you. I propose now to deal with the economic argument which, it has been said, we did not sufficiently dwell upon. Gentlemen, I really felt in was unnecessary to argue it at length because the disclosures in connection with the liquidations wer such common property in this Colony that it did not seem necessary to argue them at length, but as it seems desirable to speak more fully upon it I will proceed to do so, I said in my speech that the return of the Germans to Hongkong would be inimical to the interests of Hongkong, That is the basi of our economic argument. (Applause.) have no hesitation in saying that at least. 60 per cent. of the German trade in this Colony was done in British cargo. Now, gentlemeit. let us pausa for a moment to consider what that means. To all of us who are intimately acquainted with the textile trade, and largely from my own practical and personal experience, it has been well known that there have been many occasions in the past ten years where Lancashire travellers in this Colony have reported large sales to German firms when British merchants, who had pre- cisely the same cargo lying in their golonÓ and were prepared to accept spot cash price for it, were unable to sell. And yet large sales took place. Why? Because the whole basis of the textile trade, and of other trades in connection with German business here was built up upon a credit basis, for which the credit had to be kept revolving. There fore, it did not matter what the times were whether they sold at a loss or sold at a pr fit, it was essential to them, in order to carry on their trade not only to go on selling, but, what was more material to them, to go on buying. That is a point I wish to enforce and ask you to dwell upon. I also wish to emphasise the point that British merchants of this Colony were opposed in their trade by gooda, made by Lancashire firms, which
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were sold at a loss by Germans, and sold merely to keep the credit revolving in order to meet due bills. In defiance of obligations in connection with trust deeds and hills, they misapplied funds which should have been used for paying off, without indefinite delas, due bills. I say again, that that sort of business was immoral from first to last. (Applause.) I ask you, gentlemen, whether you are prepared to admit, back into your midst men who are prepared to reconstitute this kind of business when, after much pains and tremendous struggling, the traile of the Colony has once more been put upon a sound cash basis. (Voice-No.) And as I said in the Council, the condition of this Colony to day is healthier and sounder than it has been for many years paat. Allow them to come back and seek to do trade, which from the very nature of things they must offer on terms which no self-respecting British firm would think of accepting. I did not speak of the wider credit system of trule to which the Attorney-General made reference. The trade in the Hinterland, where large Gov. ernment and engineering contracts are con- cerned, and where there may be opposition to British firms, may have been allowed to lapse somewhat, and we think it may be possible that British firms will have to con- sider its development upon credit lines with the assistance of the banks, in order that the trale of the Hinterland should be more widely pushed than it has been in the past. It is true that in the past we have left much of that trade to our Gerinan competitors, We have realisedl now that a large trade was done, and possibly a paying trade was done, and that it must be developed possibly on similar lines, but we shall endeavour to make them sounder. It was further hinted that if you did not allow the Germans to return to Hongkong it might lead to the development of Swatow, Amoy and other outports with railway communication between those places and Canton, and possibly the development of other parts. Gentlemen, in the first place, I doubt very much whether for some years to come they will be financially in a position to finance any big railway scheme for any big commercial development scheme. But if they were I have no hesitation in say ing that if the British merchants of this Colony allow them to do so it serves them right, and when I say that I mean that if we are not alive to the possibilities of competi- tion, and knowing well we can meet them and overcome them, and do not try to, then we shall deserve all the competition we may possibly have to meet. If we do not work hand in hand with the Chinese Government in connection with railway development be tween Swatow and Canton, and we allow other people to do it, then we deserve the
competition. In conclusion, and in putting this resolution to you, I would say that the question of a time limit of ten years, so far as your Committee is concerned, is merely an academic term for the sake of argument. When the resolution was proposed it was not proposed with the idea of carrying into effect any definite action within this Colony. It was not understood that it should be so; it was merely desired that an expression from the Colony should go to the Home Government for their consideration in con- nection with Imperial Legislation, and it was equally realised that whatever the Imperial Authorities at Home might decide, this Colony would have to fall in with them, and would do so gladly. (Applause.) But we did contend, and we do contend, that we have a perfect right to express independently our views to the Imperial Authorities at Home on that very point. (Applause.) Father, I am prepared to say in regard to the period of ten years that if the meeting wish it we are prepared to modify the resolution in that respect so that it meets with general accept-
ance.
We are most anxious that the views should go forward from this meeting with positively and absolutely united action, if wo can possibly see eye to eye together in that connection. Gentlemen, I leave the resolution in your hands. (Applause.)
The Hou. Mr. C. E. ANTON-Those of you who read my speech at the Legislative Coun- cil may probably have recognised that I based my argument chiefly on sentimental grounds, not from the commercial point of view, though I have my view on that. After all is said and done, we cannot guide our policy by a mere matter of pounds, shillings there are arguments, strong arguments, on and pence. (Applause.) I am aware that both sides of the question, and though, per- sonally, I think we should combine ourselves against German opposition of any kind, yet views expressed, as I am not a long resident at the same time I should like to hear further here. That is all I have to say in seconding the resolution,
Mr. E. V. D. PARE-Without trespassing upon the valuable time of the meeting would like to record my cordial support of the remarks of our worthy Chairman as re- gards this resolution, and to add that it might be considered a matter of common and ordinary precaution. Gentlemen, we desire these sentiments to be sent home to the Home Government. The Prime Minister, very wisely, since the beginning of the war has acted in consultation with the brat tech- nical and business brains of the country- (applause)—and we are encouraged to think that his Government will welcome the ex- pression of opinion of businessmen of Hong.
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