CO129-348 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [7-10] — Page 575

571

Paragraph 3. I have already shown that the statement that

the Committee were approached by the Solicitors is

B

wwer e

سکتے

*a: taige

(redtudo vid to youdogecă nu în vredded and 18 1 Bed on I ef?

●VINIIdos reef to tortieved and yono [fɛox alä oð

*

ort 202 penner erit meris honesto ovní I »3 danYYSOFAS Wqdef n'andegoed Intro Iob unit of gabqlcor #! e`dableve

inexact.

firms

It will be observed that the "majority of the solicitors

in the Colony" altered to" many of the solicitin " has

now become "8 solicitors' frims representing half the

firms in Hongkong". But even this is inaccurate: the

letter was not signed by more than 3 firms (perhaps 4),

the remainder were individuals practising as solicitors.

The gentlemen who signed did not represent half the f*x*

firms in Hongkong.

Paragraph 4. The Committee say that after careful consider-

ation it is not in their opinion in the public interest

to enlarge the vacations: "nor that a good case hns

been made out by the advocate of the scheme". What the

careful consideration amounted to appears in paragraph

5. But the second statement is astounding. The Commit-

too were not asked to make an enquiry whether a good

case had been made out or not: that was the business of

the Government, the Committee was asked for its opinjon

in order to assist the Government to come to a conclu-

sion whether a good case had been made out or not. It is inconceivable that the Government should have asked

the Committee of the Chamber to decide whether the

Chief Justice had made out a good case: if they thought that they showed the most surprising want of discrimi-

nation in coming to a conclusion, for they did not

notice the real question which was involved, and/an astonishing lack of courtesy to the Chief Justice. Paragraph 5. The Committee adopts bodily the reasons put

Eight forward in the letter of the two Solicitors, but have

alx

no views of their om. It might be imagined that the question was one on which the views of the commercial community might have been formulated with a little case

Care