CO129-259 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1893 [5-8] — Page 543

PREFACE.

[From the HONGKONG DAILY PRESS of 29th August, 1893.]

The Government has succeeded in staving off the much talked-of Retrenchment Commission. The whole history of the affair will be found in the correspondence published in another column, and very interesting reading it will be found to be. The Secretary of State directed an enquiry, and the Governor, in pursuance of this direction, expressed his intention to appoint a Committee. The composition of this Committee, however, was such that the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD felt himself compelled to decline to serve The matter will now go on it, and so the whole thing has fallen through, for the present at all events. before the Secretary of State again, and if the unofficial members of the Legislative Council remain quiescent, no doubt his Lordship will be very willing to let it rest, but if they persevere in their demand for an independent enquiry there can be little doubt that it will be granted. However this may be, it would certainly be better to have no enquiry at all than a mere whitewashing Commission, and the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD has taken the proper course in declining to serve on the Committee the Governor proposed to appoint. At first His Excellency proposed rather a large Committee with a very decided preponderance of officials, but after much correspondence the number of members was reduced to four--- two officials (of whom one was to be Chairman) and two unofficials. Mr. WHITEHEAD rightly declined to serve unless the unofficials were in a majority, and as the Governor declined to accede to this, and the enquiry could not well go on without Mr. WHITEHEAD's assistance, the present dead-lock has come to pass.

The Colonial Secretary in his last letter to Mr. WHITEHEAD endeavours to show that the cou- stitution of the Committee ought to be a matter of indifference to that gentleman, because it would bave no power to decide anything; its functions would be strictly limited to enquiring and recommending, and any recommendations which the Committee or any of its members might make would by no means necessarily derive weight in proportion to the number of the members making the several recommenda- tious, but solely from the amount of reason and good sense which the recommendations might severally contain. Will you walk into my parlour, said the spider to the fly. Mr. O'BRIEN must have thought Mr. WHITEHEAD a peculiarly foolish fly if he imagined tuat gentleman was likely to be taken in by such sophistry as this. Or was it the public that was looked upon as the fly to be taken in and done for? Mr. WHITEHEAD's refusal to serve on the Committee was already final, so that the argument could have no effect upon his course of action, but Mr. O'BRIEN perhaps thought that it might serve to make the gullible public think Mr. WHITEHEAD was in the wrong.

Whenever an important Commission is appointed its constitution is always narrowly watched, especially when the matter is one as to which public opinion is strongly divided. The appointment of the delegates to the Monetary Conference and the more recent appointment of a Royal Commission on the opium question are instances in point. Although the functions of such Commissions are confined to enquiry aud recommendation their constitution is never looked upon as a matter of indifference, because the fact that force of argument avails little against preponderance of numbers has unfortunately to be taken into consideration. In the present instance, between the Chief Justice and the Colonial Secretary, the Gover- nor has been placed in a hopelessly untenable position. The Chief Justice writes to His Excellency that "he must decline to accept a position by which he would be bereft of all influence," meaning a position as Chairman of a Commission in which there was any fear of the side to which His Honour belongs being outvoted, for, as he says in subsequent letter, "it is impossible to escape the conclusion that there are sides." So we have the officials on the one side and the public on the other, and the officials want to have a trained lawyer like the Chief Justice to conduct their case for them as Chairman of the proposed Committee, backed up by another official. These two would be able to hold the fort against two un- officials, who, being unacquainted in detail with the routine of the various offices, would have to grope about blindly for information while their supposed colleagues looked on with amused contempt. The arrangement was naturally one which could not be accepted on the unofficial side. If, as Mr. O'BRIEN says, the recommendations of the Committee would not derive weight in proportion to the number of the members making the several recommendations, but solely from the amount of reason and good sense which the recommendations might severally contain, why should the Government have exhibited such fear of an independent enquiry ? The confession that "there are sides" explains the whole thing; the officials are on one side, the public on the other, and the Government wants the official side to have a preponderance of strength on the Retrenchment Committee. By insisting on this unfair arrangement they have managed to stave off the unwelcome enquiry altogether for the time being,

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