Copy.
F 3003/117/10.)
Minute from the Acting Crown Advocate to
H.B.M. Acting Consul-General at Shanghai.
105
Subject:- Peking despatch No. 149 of the 14th August, 1920.
In my opinion the proposed amendment of the Hongkong
Companies Ordinance 1915, in such a way as to prevent the
evasion of Article 3 of the China (Companies) Amendment Order
in Council, 1919, will not affect the arrangements for the
transfer of the British American Tobacco Company (China) Ltd.
to the Hongkong Register.
The scheme of the B.A. T. Co, is to act under the provi-
sions of Section 4 (2) (c) of the 1915 Ordinance, i.e., to
transfer to Hongkong the direction and control of its opera-
tions. When this has been done to the satisfaction of the
Registrar of Companies at Shanghai, the latter will, under
the provisions of Section 4 (3) (o) of the 1915 Ordinance,
transfer the Company's file to the Registrar in Hongkong.
Thus the Company will become a Hongkong China Company and
Article 4 of the 1919 Order in Council will not be applicable
to it.
The object of the proposed amending Ordinance is to
bring the Company law administered in Hongkong into line with
that in force in Chine, by introducing in the Colony provi-
sions similar to those contained in Article 3 of the 1919
Order in Council. The position at the moment is that a
Company, which might be held by the Supreme Court of Hongkong
to be a Hongkong China Company, under the existing Ordinances,
might