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HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
result of negotiations between the Gov- ernment and the marine lot holders, and has been approved by the latter.
3. Power is taken in the bill to carry out all works which may be necessary for the purpose of constructing and com- pleting the reclamation, e... altering streets, moving pipes and cables, running construction tramways, etc.
con.
seems
an
He said: The Bills of Exchange Ordin- ance provides that where a bill is drawn out of the Colony and is payable in the Colony and the amount payable is not expressed in the currency of Hongkong, that amount-when the bill comes to be the rate of exchange for sight drafts on paid-must be calculated according to the day the bill is payable Tlot is not in accordance with the banking prac- tice in Hongkong and other parts of the He said: This Bill contains a siderable amount of technical matter,
Far East. The practice is to take the but, as it is the result of negotiations paid.
rate of the day on which the bill is
That between the frontagers, and the Govern- reasonable course, because the rate may obvious and ment and as it has been approved by change between the day when the bill the frontagers, I do not think it is neces-
is payable and the actual day when it sary for me to go into it in detail. Power is takeu to carry out all works that, amendment has not been made in England. I is paid. It may seem strange that this may be necessary to make the reclama-understand that the reason is that bills on tion, such as altering streets, moving London are nearly all drawn in sterling cables, and general construction works.
and, therefore, the question does not arise so scntely there as here. Some are drawn in franes, but these contain an ex- press clause providing that the rate is to be the rate on the day of payment. This Bill merely brings the Ordinance into accordance with the local banking ¡practice.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconde 7, and the Bill was read a first time.
Bills of Exchange Ordinance
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of An Ordinance to amend fur- ther the Bills of Exchange Ordinance,
1885.
state:-
and the Bill was read a first time.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded,
Indemnity Ordinance
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the first reading of a Bill intituled, An Ordinance to restrict the taking of legal proceed- ings in respect of certain acts and matters done during the war and to provide in certain cases remedies in substitution.
He said: This, sir, is an indemnity Bill such as is always introduced after any war of any importance. J say that be-
The "Objects and Reasons Paragraph (4) of section 72 of the Bills of Exchange Ordinance, 1885, provides that where a bill is drawn out of but payable in this Colony, and the sum pay. able is not expressed in the currency of this Colony, the amount shall, in the absence of some express stipulation, be calculated according to the rate of ex- change for sight drafts at the place of payment on the day that the bill is pay- able. This paragraph was a copy of paragraph (4) of section 72 of the Bills of Exchange Act, 1882, 45 and 46 Vict.
I shall deal in It is not in accordance with the banking practice in this Colony. Accord ing to that practice the amount in Hongkong currency is calculated accord- ing to the rate of exchange on the actual date of payment. This seems reasonable, as exchange might vary considerably be- tween the day when the bill was payable and the day when it was actually paid. The bill is intended to amend the Ordi- nance so as to agree with the local bank- ing practice.
e. 61.
I do
cause it has been suggested that this is not really an indemnity Bill, at all, and that the indemnity clauses are really intended to cover another object with which
few minutes. H not agree with that view. When the war was going on, and we were fighting for our national existence, many things had legal justification could be found, but the to be done for which, perhaps, no strict occasion was urgent and conditions were
new.
matters connected with the liquidation of Both in police, and censorship, and German firms, things had to be done, on the spur of the moment, because there was no time to get definite legislative authority and
no time to explore
emergency.
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
British
110
to
thoroughly the law on the subject. I the terms which the Government offered; think it would not be fair that particular in other words-they accepted the Blue officers, or even the Government, should now Book rates. stand to be shot at by people who have land reserved their rights; that minority A certain minority in Eng- had all this time to rake over the law have now been compelled to accept the and pick holes in what was done in rates which the great majority of the industry accepted voluntarily. Is it fair then, sir, that these few ships out here But, though this is an indemnity should evade their share of the common Bill, it would be foolish to deny that one burden which. object of it is to bar certain shipping throughout the world have either accept- shipowners claims in respect of ships requisitioned ed voluntarily or been required by law here during the war. The intention of to accept? It is a difficult matter the Bill is that compensation for the use speak of questions of sacrifice, especially of those ships shall be restricted to the when one speaks from a safe position, but rates which were given by the Boards of I think that it is not unfair to remind the Arbitrators in England, in the case of shipowners concerned that many men ships requisitioned there, with, of course, any had additional amount which may have been health shattered or their lives forfeited their businesses ruined. their promised here by the local government on in the war, and I do not think that the account of the special conditions of the Government of the Colony are acting local shipping. Any shipowner whose unfairly in asking these shipowners to ship was requisitioned, or controlled, and shoulder their share of the common bur- who is not satisfied with the amount offered will den. have to go before the Board, which will think that it is an unfair one, but I The opponents of this Bill may consist of one judge, one member appoint would remind them that if it is not ed by you, sir, and one appointed by the passed another act of unfairness will be claimant, and that Board will be limited perpetrated. I would like to quote from a in their grant of compensation by the speech of Sir Gordon Hewart in the same principles that guided the corres-House of Commons in the debate on the ponding board in England. In other Indemnity Bill, which passed into law last words, they will only be allowed to give year--the Act on which this Bill is founded. Blue Book rates with certain additions which it is not necessary to specify here.
the war.
ar-
The first observation I should like to make is that this is, at least, no surprise to shipowners because the policy was nounced at the very start, and shipowners must have known it was the fixed policy of the Government. I do not overlook the fact that the shipowners patriotically re- frained from making any claim during do not altogether blame them for seeking to enforce whatever legal rights they have now, but, at least, they cannot say they were misled, because the policy was announced at the time and they must have known that the Government intended to carry it out by all means in their power. I would also point out that shipowners as a body have not done at all badly in the war. Freights were high, the values of ships appreciated, and those ships requisitioned here were not requisitioned at all until long after the war had started-one at the end of 1917 and the rest at the beginning of 1918. They had all that time before they were controlled by, the Government at all. The position is this, that all over the world, certainly in the United Kingdom, the great majority of shipowners accepted
The quotation was as follows:
+
"Are we to have two classes of persons in the country, who have given up, volun- tarily or involuntarily, their property for the defence and the safety of the realm; those who have taken their compensation at the hand of the Losses Commission, and those who have waited for the ultimate fighting out of certain cases, and then want by Petition of Right to insist upon their pound of flesh, and insist with success! [ think that would be a deplorable result. I submit that in this case, as in all cases, the only proper standard for the Govern ment is that there must be one weight and one measure." (Hansard, H. of C., Vol. 128, pp. 1845 and 1846).
The hon. member after reading the extract went on to say:-
I would also like to remind the ship- owners concerned that the Government in carrying out this shipping scheme accepted the That risk, as it happened, was not serious, war risk on these ships. but the possibility of a raider finding its way into these waters was not
an im- possible one. There was also the danger of explosions amongst cargo, explosions