time making clear in the English name (as was already clear
in the Chinese name) the national status of the firm.
53
In 1923 the Hongkong Government, without consulting the
Registrar of Companies at Shanghai, issued a new Ordinance
Article 2 of which amended Article 64(1)(a) of the 1911
Ordinance, as amended by the 1921 Ordinance, to apply only
to limited companies which use a transliteration or translation
of their names in Chinese characters.
The Attorney General explained in his Objects and
Reasons that the 1921 amendment had given rise to difficulties.
"The term "Chinese name" would seem to include any Chinese
name used by the Company, even though only a colloquial
unofficial designation of the Company. Several European
companies are known among the Chinese by such names, which
frequently bear no relation to the sound of the official
English name of the Company." The proposed amended sub-
section was intended to clear up any such doubt by making it
applicable only to a transliteration or translation of the
official English name of the Company.
The Consul-General and Registrar of Companies at Shanghai
took strong exception, pointing out that it would render
practicably ineffective the requirement of the 1921 Ordinance
that every China Company when trading under its Chinese name
should make clear the fact that it was British and also that it
possessed limited liability, and that every Hongkong China
Company in the same circumstances should disclose its
limitation of liability and he expressed the opinion that
-
there could be no question as to the desirability, if not necess-
ity, of these two requirements.
He reverted to the 1922 proposal and suggested that
British companies, other than China Companies, be obliged
by
O-in-C/