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proper consideration being given to it by
the Legislative Council and without opportunity
for the Petitioners to organise opposition.
(h) thus an important industry is placed under Auch
control that it may run at a loss and it would
be both impolitic and unjust not to disallow
the ordinance and allow the whole matter to
be reconsidered.
4. This concluded Mr. Fitzgerald's statement of his
clients' case and there was then some discussion.
Mr. Sidebotham stressed the housing shortage and extreme
overcrowding prevailing in Hong Kong and said that the
object of the Ordinance was to protect the Hong Kong resident from having to pay for hotel accommodation at exorbitant rates limited only by what the wealthy Chinese refugees were prepared to pay. With the rapid movement of events in China and growing pressure on hotel accommodation by refugees arriving in the Colony it was
necessary to act quickly and take practical steps to
assist the bona fide Hong Kong resident. The hotels
were in fact doing very good business as a result of
these conditions and only 18 out of 83 of them were
subject to any control. If control were being harshly administered or were not working smoothly, representations could be made to the Governor and would be carefully
considered.
In reply to Mr. de Comarmond, Mr. Fitzgerald agreed that if the Quartering Authority were assisted by an Advisory committee representing the hotel industry or if
Section 4 of the Ordinance were toned down his clients'
objection would be less. He said that though the financial position of hotels affected by the Regulations was not yet
clear and would of course vary in different cases, these
/hotels