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HONG-KONG EXPULSION
DECREE
Wording of Ordinance Criticised
un-
From MICHAEL DAVIDSON, "The Scotsman" Special Correspondent HONG-KONG, Wednesday. The text of the new Hong-Kong ordinance regarding desirable elements was read with consider- able uneasiness by liberal-minded Britons and foreigners as well as by Chinese. Even some Government officials confess that they do not feel altogether happy about it.
The official standpoint is that the purpose of the ordinance is not political at all; rather is it a measure to relieve this over-crowded colony of useless hungry mouths-much the same thing as the Communists are doing to- day in Shanghai.
In fact, the category of undesirables described in the text as suspected of being likely to promote sedition or cause a dis- turbance of public tranquillity" is obviously the operative clause, although it comes sixth down the list under undesirables who are lunatic," "vagrant," "suffering from loath- some disease," and so on.
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COMMUNISTS NOT MENTIONED
If the ordinance is directed against Com- munists as certainly it is-it is felt it should say so and not apparently apply to the most helpless sections of the population. The authorities declare that it is purely pre- cautionary and that no immediate action is contemplated.
On the other hand, it enables "accommoda- tion camps" to be established, empowers the police to arrest anybody they suspect of being undesirable," and allows Magistrates, with- fout trial or proper legal safeguards, to order expulsion provided the suspect is not a British subject or an inhabitant of the colony for ten years or more.
Those are pretty drastic steps for the Government of a British colony to take. Communist propagandists could not wish for more apt material. The attitude of the Chinese population may be gauged by the outcry against the recent ordinance ordering $ the registration, with photographs and finger-prints, of everybody in the colony. It is widely felt here that these two measures, with their tone of repression and intimidation, are not likely to win the sym- pathy of the Chinese for the British cause; and that, granting that something of the kind is necessary, they should have been intro- duced months ago and gradually.
AN OPPORTUNITY MISSED
In British and foreign circles, there is a belief that Government policy here has missed
a
tremendous opportunity to show what democracy could do in a colony. It is true that in Hong-Kong there is less misery, hunger, and disease than anywhere else in China. But that does not mean that condi- tions among the poorer classes are good, even allowing for the recent doubling of the population.
The refusal by the authorities to introduce a structure of government allowing really democratic participation of Chinese citizens, or to open the higher grades of the adminis- tration to Chinese, is a constant source of irritation and food for external criticism.
That is the main theme developed by friendly critics of the British administration here that a policy of reform and material improvement would have had twice the value of the present series of police measures.-Copyright.
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4.OCS/MENA 18 AUG 1949
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