+
''
MR. CHEN:
We,
here, can agree on the consultation of the
354
Court of Enquiry.
MR. BRENAN:
Other nations will have to be consulted before
that can be settled.
ER. CHEN:
We could, however, agree on the propusuls as
to how the Court should proceed.
MR. KEMPY:
The other nations concerned must have time for
consideration and the witnesses are scattered all over the
world.
MR. CHEN:
-
absent.
We could casily find out which witnesses are
MR. Kemp: Many of the witnesses are away. The troops, for
instance, may have been transferred.
MR. CHEN : But we shall not require all the men.
MR. KEMP: Who is to say? The Court might ruquire additional evidence at any stage, and it might take months to get it. The Enquiry could easily take a year.
}
MR. CHEN: Can we not find a formula beginning something on the line of "While we do not reject the proposal for an Enquiry
MR. KEMP:
It would be better to let the matter of the
Enquiry stand over with the claims for compensation on
either sido and to proceed to settle at once the question
of the boycott.
There is one term in the alternative proposal, which
we cannot possibly accept. Compensation to strikers is impossible. Hong Kong is the ggrieved party and has suffered
losses through no fault of its own. We emphatically refuse
to pay money to strikers. No idea of such payment can be
Untertained,