47
British cast a slur on the good name of all British firms,
so that in order to maintain the prestige of British firms in
general it is necessary by legislation to insist in the case
of China companies upon the use of the designating characters
In Hongkong, curiously enough, the same object
seems to have been attained by the denial of right to companies
incorporated there to use the word "British" in their names
except by special licence of the Governor, and, similarly,
when the 1925 Order-in-Council was under discussion I see that
you (as Deputy Registrar) held that companies incorporated in
the United Kingdom, often with no really British element,
should be compelled in China to state their place of
incorporation rather than that they should add "British" to
their official English names.
4.
It seems clear, also, that the whole trend of the
legislation, as regards both the English official and the
Chinese names, has been towards a fuller and wider disclosure
of the status of the company.
5. Moreover, it appears that the proviso for the issue
of licenses of exemption was first included in the Companies
21925
Ordinance, 1924, as the result of dissatisfaction e xpressed
in Hongkong (and echoed by the Chambers of Commerce at Shanghai,
Tientsin and Hankow) by old established British firms who
felt that the addition of the characters
operated to the disadvantage of their hong chops and the simplicity
of their nong names. (I see, incidentally, that the
Attorney General was apparently prepared in order to meet this
objection to omit the characters for "limited" on the
assumption that those for "British" were retained.) It seems to
have been clearly understood that the licenses of exemption
should "only be granted sparingly to such companies as are able
to/