6
Gov. Ref. 4.
902
12/12/38
12
-Its of Regulation which has been made under Emergency Regulations Ordée, 1922
in the circumstances stated
I M. L. Smith.
S.O.
7/12/38
Ref. 4 & 5. — habés, apple of Purves, considered rather more thas confidential, was in the list of "Recent Apportunats
& broms "which came out,
one of the and mole of 9/% $88. Does not consides any great
I
Lade
was done.
No. 6.
The abuses described in this despatch
justify, I think, the present emergency Regulation.
Unchecked, they would have led to a general
dislocation of the water supply amongst, at least,
the poorer classes of the Colony's unusually high
population, and the result would probably have been
highly dangerous from a health point of view alone.
From paragraphs 13-15 of the enclosure to
(1) it is clear that the Hong Kong Government
intended that the granting of permission to landlords
for metering of separate floors of tenements should
serve as a means of controlling water consumption and
more effectively preventing wastage, and the
possibility of landlords acting as described in this
despatch was probably not envisaged, at least not on
such a large scale.
The Governor regards the present as an
emergency situation only. In view of the shortage
of accommodation due to the recent large increase
in population, landlords have been put in a strong
bargaining position: but this will presumably be
lost if and when the situation returns to normal and
the relative bargaining strength as between tenants
and