CO129-425 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [10-12] — Page 532

2.

Remarks as to the Proposed new Hongkong

Ordinance relating to Asiatic Emigration,

524

In the Hongkong Ordinance, an "Emigrant ship" is a ship carrying

more than 20 passengers who are natives of Asia, subject to

the exemptions laid down in section 5 of the Ordinance.

Under the old Hongkong ordinance a "Chinese passenger ship" was

similarly defined.

In

our Chinese Immigrants Ordinance a"Chinese Immigrant ship"

is any ship carrying Chinese immigrante,i.e. any ship carrying

Chinese passengers other than first or second class cabin pas-

sengers or the servantsof such or persons on the articles of

the ship.

This difference between our law and that of Hongkong does not

greatly matter, as it has been going on for some time,

There is one point, however, in which it is inconvenient for us,

vis: that by the Hongkong Ordinance, if the total number of

Asiatic passengers (subject to the exemption of section 5)

is not more than 20, the ship is not an Emigrant ship, and

can apparently carry Chinese women as deck passengers without

a Hongkong licence, which means that we do not get lists and

photographs of such women from Hongkong. (vide section 46 of

the Hongkong Ordinance) This remark also applies to female

deck passengers by mail ships(vide sections 5 and 14 of the

Hongkong Ordinance), if the total number of deck Asiatic pas-

sengers does not exceed 20. French mail boats coming from

Hongkong to Singapore have given us some trouble in the past

in this respect.

As to section 30, this conflicts with the definition of "qualified

medical practitioner" in section 3 of our Chinese Immigrants

Ordinance.