6.
export quotas. It would not, however, handle directly supplies which came to Hong Kong on a Government account or indulge in commercial buying and selling.
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Finally, it would advise the Government on any matter which the Board of Trade thought fit to submit for Government action and the Government on matter which was submitted to it. it would form a day to day link between the commercial world and
In short the Government and be the Government's economic advisor in chief. iv. STATISTICAL SECTION: This section would as hitherto be respons-
ible for collecting statistics on the trade of the Colony. section would, however, be enlarged to deal with statistics of
The value to industry. It would maintain a close liaison with the Statistical Officer.
c. MISCELLANEOUS FUNCTIONS: These would include any matters which, while not fitting into a general picture, could probably be best per- formed by a Department of this nature. Thus the Department would deal with unmanifested cargo Regulations, the special Import Regulations, of shaving brushes from Japan, of the special Regulations under the Copyright Ordinance and the Trade Marks Ordinance.
d. One criticism of the proposed Department is that it would be undertaking many functions which have hitherto been performed by the Chambers of Commerce. While it is probably difficult to draw a hard and fast line between the functions of the Chambers of Commerce and those which the new Department will fulfill, it would probably be a correct appreciation to say that the Department will concern itself with those functions which require Government action at some stage, and it will not concern itself, oxcept in an advisory capacity, with communications of the type normally carried on by organised bodies of merchants in Hong Kong and their counterparts overseas. might be drawn between H.M. Commercial Counsellor and the British
A parallel Chamber of Commerce in U.S.A.: while functions may appear to overlap to some extent yet in actual practice one party rarely encroaches on the province of the other and the existence of one does not preclude the necessity for the other,
IV.
THE POSITION OF THE NEW DEPARTMENT IN THE GOVERNMENT:
It has been suggested that the new Department should be an integral portion of the Colonial Secretariat. In support of this it is stated the Singapore counterpart of the Department, called the Secretary for Economic Affairs, is a sub-section of the Secretariat. It is argued that economic affairs in the modern world are of great importance, and local economic conditions may be unknown to the Colonial Secretary, so that it is advisable that despatches leaving the Secretariat covering economic matters should be handled direct by the Secretary for Economic Affairs. This system appears to have worked well in Singapore.
On the other hand, there are arguments against this procedure. First, there is a general tendency for Governments to become over- centralised. Administration is more flexible when it involves a large measure of devolution. Secondly, it would be inadvisable that the revenue collecting functions of the Department should be incorporated in the Secretariat. But even if this part of the Department were separated, it would seem that the functions envisaged for the Department would involve a mass of detail which would be better dealt with in a separate Department rather than adding to the store which is collected at the centre of Government. Finally, there are many questions of an economic nature which would in any case have to be referred to other parts of the Government machine, e.g. the Labour Officer, so that some third party agency would still be necessary where conflicting claims or opinions arose.
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