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(6), Except with the permission of the Governor, a
company may not be registered by, or a dopt or use, any name
which includes the word 'British': Provided that a China
Company may, without any such permission, be registered by and
use a name which includes the word 'British'.
By Section 6(6) of the Companies Ordinance 1915,
Section 64(1) (a) of The Companies Ordinance of 1911 was amended
by the addition of the words:-
"and, in the case of a China Company, the characters
1.
No correspondence is on file to show why or how these
amendments were made.
At the Conference of British Chambers of Commerce in China
and Hongkong held at Shanghai in November 1920 the following
resolution, regarding the official English names of British
companies, was carried:-
"that this Conference considers it desirable that enquiry
be made into the advisability of legislation being enacted
whereby the word 'British......be appended to the names of all
China Companies"......
The resolution was prompted by the feeling that the use
of the word "Limited" would not serve to distinguish British
companies, and by the desire to avoid the risk that ill
managed companies of other nationalities might be thought to be
British to the prejudice of the general good reputation of
British firms.
Similar arguments were again used at the Conference in
1921, ("If a 'limited' company goes bankrupt it casts a slur on
the British name amongst Chinese."), which went further and
resolved tnat:-
"This Conference considers it desirable that legislation
be enacted whereby the word 'British'
be used after the
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names/