Extract from "Daily Press” of 25th April, 1892.
With the letter addressed to us by Mr. EDE, on the proposed incorporation of the Pó Leung Kuk, and which appeared in our last issue, it is perhaps unnecessary for us to say we fully concur. Our views on that question were set forth at some length on the 28th ultimo, and little more remains to be said on the subject. We should like, however, the Government to understand that in this matter Mr. WHITEHEAD thoroughly represents the community. There is a strong feeling against this attempt by the Registrar-General to secure a political status for what ought to be a purely philanthropic society possessing no administrative functions and no more power than that somewhat similar institution the Hongkong Benevolent Society, which is very efficiently managed by a committee of ladies. The Bill will come on for its second reading in the Legislative Council this afternoon, when it is earnestly to be hoped that it will be withdrawn. Such an enactment is entirely opposed to the aim and spirit of our constitution, and is repugnant to the ideas and wishes of the European community, who would not dream of asking similar powers for their own Benevolent Society, and who see no reason why they should be granted to a Chinese society. As at present constituted the Pó Leung Kuk has done a considerable amount of good without exciting much hostility, but, clothed in the powers now sought to be conferred on it, confidence in the legitimate character of its work would be severely strained. We trust therefore that the Council will reject the measure on its second reading if it be not previously withdrawn.
Extract from "Daily Press" of 17th May, 1892.
We must confess that our opinion of the tact and good judgment of Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON sank many degrees after perusing the correspondence between the Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD and the Government, published in another column. The suggestion made by the Honourable Member that the Colonial Secretary or the Acting Chief Justice should be substituted for the Registrar-General as Chairman of the Committee to inquire into and report on certain questions connected with the Bill for the incorporation of the Pó Leung Kuk was so reasonable, and the arguments by which it was supported so irrefutable yet withal so temperately expressed, that we should have thought they would have been readily recognised and acted upon. A great mistake was made in appointing Mr. LOCKHART to preside over the Commission, but there would have been nothing undignified in repairing the mistake when pointed out. It involves a far greater loss of dignity to persevere in a course which is obviously indefensible, which is what the Governor has elected to do. The Colonial Secretary has, it is true, attempted to defend the appointment, but his effort amounts to such a complete begging of the question that it would have been far better, and very much more dignified, to have cut the correspondence short with a brief refusal to reconsider the question. Mr. O'BRIEN thought proper, however, to engage in controversy, and the result is truly pitiful. He must have felt that he had a bad case, but possibly he has not realised how bad. His defence, stripped of the little cloud of verbiage in which it is clothed, amounts to this: that because Mr. LOCKHART's interest in the welfare of the Society is so notorious, because he is of all persons in the Colony most interested in securing a free, full, and impartial inquiry into the allegations made against the Society, that, therefore, he should be Chairman of the Committee appointed to investigate them. Could anything be more fatuous? Mr. LOCKHART's protégé is to be on its trial and he is to be placed in the position of judge! The appointment cannot be satisfactory to the Registrar-General himself. He naturally must wish to appear as in some sense the advocate and the representative of the Pó Leung Kuk. From this he will be precluded if he presides over the inquiry. Far be it from us to impugn for a moment the purity of his motives or
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Extract from "Daily Press” of 25th April, 1892.
With the letter addressed to us by Mr. EDE, on the proposed incorporation of the Pó Leung Kuk, and which appeared in our last issue, it is perhaps unnecessary for us to say we fully concur. Our views on that question were set forth at some length on the 28th ultimo, and little more remains to be said on the subject. We should like, however, the Government to understand that in this matter Mr. WaHITE- HEAD thoroughly represents the community. There is a strong feeling against this attempt by the Registrar-General to secure a political status for what ought to be a purely philanthropic society possessing no administrative functions and no more power than that somewhat similar institution the Hongkong Benevolent Society, which is very efficiently managed by a committee of ladies. The Bill will come on for its second reading in the Legislative Council this afternoon, when it is earnestly to be hoped that it will be withdrawn. Such an enactment is entirely opposed to the aim and spirit of our constitution, and is repugnant to the ideas and wishes of the European community, who would not dream of asking similar powers for their own Benevolent Society, and who see no reason why they should be granted to a Chinese society. As at present constituted the Pó Leung Kuk has done a consider- able amount of good without exciting much hostility, but, clothed in the
powers now sought to be conferred on it, confidence in the legitimate character of its work would be severely strained. We trust therefore that the Council will reject the measure on its second reading if it be not previously withdrawn.
Extract from "Daily Press" of 17th May, 1892.
We must confess that our opinion of the tact and good judgment of Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON Sank many degrees after perusing the correspondence between the Honour- able T. H. WHITEHEAD and the Government, published in another column. The suggestion made by the Honourable Member that the Colonial Secretary or the Acting Chief Justice should be substituted for the Registrar-General as Chairman of the Committee to inquire into and report on certain questions connected with the Bill for the incorporation of the Pó Leung Kuk was so reasonable, and the argu- ments by which it was supported so irrefutable yet withal so temperately expressed, that we should have thought they would have been readily recognised and acted upon. A great mistake was made in appointing Mr. LOCKHART to preside over the Commission, but there would have been nothing undignified in repairing the mistake when pointed out. It involves a far greater loss of dignity to persevere in a course which is obviously indefensible, which is what the Governor has elected to do. The Colonial Secretary has, it is true, attempted to defend the appointment, but his effort amounts to such a complete begging of the question that it would have been far better, and very much more dignified, to have cut the correspondence short with a brief refusal to reconsider the question. Mr. O'BRIEN thought proper, however, to engage in controversy, and the result is truly pitiful. He must have felt that he had a bad case, but possibly he has not realised how bad. His defence, stripped of the little cloud of verbiage in which it is clothed, amounts to this: that because Mr. LOCKHART's interest in the welfare of the Society is so notorious, because he is of all persons in the Colony most interested in securing a free, full, and impartial inquiry into the allegations made against the Society, that, therefore, he should be Chairman of the Committee appointed to investigate them. Could anything be more fatuous? Mr. LOCKHART's protégé is to be on its trial and he is to be placed in the position of judge! The appointment cannot be satisfactory to the Registrar-General himself. He naturally must wish to appear as in some sense the advocate and the representa- tive of the Pó Leung Kuk. From this he will be precluded if he presides over the inquiry. Far be it from us to impugn for a moment the purity of his motives or
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