CO129-442 - Governor Sir May - 1917 [4-6] — Page 181

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hitherto has proved insoluble, though for years past some of the best legal brains in the Colony have been engaged upon it. A general system of licensing, necessarily involving the inspection of books and transactions, seems impracticable, as it would tend to deter Chinese from establishing themselves, and even from con- -tinuing here, in trade.

11.

The suggestion that alien and Chinese Corpore- -tions trading as Hongkong registered companies should be specially controlled is in conflict with Article XXVI (9) of the Royal Instructions. It was put forward by the Chamber at the time when the Companies Ordinance, 1911, was in course of preparation, and

it was very fully considered. This Government was not then, and

it is not now, satisfied that abuses are more prevalent in one cines of locrl Company thm in mother. The existing law makes it compulsory for a Hongkong registered Company to keep a book in the English language containing a drily summary of receipts and payments. The books of a Company are generally speaking open only to the directors and secretary and to the auditor; and it would seom not unreasonable, in a Colony where the very large majority of merchants are of Chinese race, that the auditor should suit himself to the convenience of the Company by making himself acquainted with Chinese book-keeping rather than that the Company should alter its system of books for the convenience of the auditor. I may express the hope that one of the first-fruits of the school for instruction in Chinese, recently inaugurated by the Chamber, will be an auditor of British race fully conversant with Chinese methods of accounting.

12.

I find it difficult to believe the suggestion of the Chamber that the present system of ascertaining the qualification of an auditor of Chinese Companies is derided by the Chinese; as Chinese candidates for the post of authorised auditor are examined by an exceptionally strong Committee of the

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