HONG KONG HOTLS ORDINANCE 1949.
36
34
over
At noon on Friday
28th May, Mr. Sidebotham presided
a meeting in Room 337, Church House at which
Mr. Maurice Fitzgerald, K. C., assisted by Mr. Cudden,
counsel, and Mr. Parry of Messrs. Reid Sharman, Solicitors,
was heard in support of the petition to the Secretary of
State by the Hong Kong and Kowloon Hotels and Boarding Houses
Association, praying for the disallowance of the Hong Kong
Hotels Ordinance, 1949. Mr. de Comarmond and Mr. Radford
of the Colonial Office were also present.
2. Mr. Sidebotham opened by saying that, while in no way
prejudging the issue, he thought it should be understood
that it was in fact unlikely that the Secretary of State would
advise His Majesty to disallow an Ordinance which had been
introduced only after the Governor had been advised by
a specially appointed committee and which had been passed
almost unanimously by the Legislative Council.
3. Mr. Fitzgerald, K. C. enlarged first on the
K.C.
competence of his clients to speak for the Hong Kong hotel
industry, an industry which was both substantial and
reputable. He then proceeded to make the following points:-
(a) his clients thought control of the hotel
industry was wrong in principle and they also
thought that the method by which control had been
introduced was wrong.
(b) despite representations to the Governor by
( ၁ )
Petitioners, the Advisory Committee set up
was not asked to consider the question whether
there should be any control at all.
the Advisory Committee did not include an hotelier;
they heard the Petitioners' Association and
Residents Association separately; neither heard the
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