2.
20
similarly alter the priority in the case of the
Bankruptcy Ordinance.
& In some respects "debts due to the Crown" is wider than "all parochial or other local rates" and i may not be desirable to narrow it, especially as in the said despatch the Secretary of State considered it desirable to ensure that "as a minimu, assessed taxes of all kinds due to the Crown should have priority".
9.
Moreover even if we adopted the latter express- ion in both Ordinances it might be contended that rates due from a Company or bankrupt to the Shanghai Municipal
Council were not "local" rates.
10. If on the other hand "local rates" could be
held to include, in the case of a Company carrying on business within the limits of the Chine Grdere in Council, the rates levied by the Municipal Council of the International Settlement, would it not also have to include rates levied by the French Municipal Council, and the Authorities of Greater Shanghai as well as of
all Chinese Authoritiest
11. In these circumstances I suggest that the question of amending the China Order in Council in the manner suggested in the last paragraph of the Secretary General's Memorandum might be further explored by the Authorities in Shanghai before pressing for amendments
to the Hong Kong Ordinances,
(Sd) C.G. Alabaster,
Attorney General,
29/7/35.
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