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maintenance of same, Your Petitioners respectfully
suggest, should be given.
(b) This is emphasised when it is noted that the total
capital investment in the hotel trade in this Colony
comes to the very high figure of $2,000,000,000.00
and therefore represents a very substantial propor-
tion of commercial investments in Hong Kong.
(c) Hotels and Boarding Houses are employers of labour to
an approximate total of 10,000 persons and from this
perspective alone, they constitute an important
economic factor vis-a-vis the prosperity of this
Colony.
(d) Eighty per cent of the hotels and boarding houses
presently carrying on business are old-established
businesses, having been in existence in many cases
for several decades of years, and the proprietors
and managers of which are respectable and conscien-
tious permanent residents (with their respective
families) of this Colony.
(e) The hotel keeper's role may be likened to that of
house-keeper or host for visitors to the Colony, a
role particularly important in that Hong Kong, with
its entrepot trade, its harbour, its position as a
link between China and other parts of the world,
has a considerable number of transients to cater to,
both as tourists and commercial travellers, and it
is respectfully suggested that any form of official
interference is likely to have an adverse effect
on the trade as well as the economic structure of
the Colony.
(f) The Hotel trade is no sinecure and is to a certain
extent a risky venture and is very susceptible to
3.
1