CO129-442 - Governor Sir May - 1917 [4-6] — Page 208

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Hongkong except as an integral part of a general scheme. the Empire under When we remember this fact it is un- accessary to traverse the laboured argu- ments of the ATTORNEY-GENERAL and

the GOVERNOR. We of H.E.

may

remark, however, that

the when GOVERNOR recoils from the idea of excluding enemy ships from this port he seems to overlook the possibility of the ton-for-ton policy and its effects, and to forget that one of the resolutions passed at the Economic Conference at Paris provided that "the Allies will de- termine by agreement through diploma- tic channels the special conditions to be imposed," during the period of recon- struction,

the ships of enemy Powers."

" on

Rightly or wrongly, the British com- mercial community have arrived at a certain conclusion which they desire to place before the proper anthorities for their information, and it ill becomes the permanent officials to set themselves up As superior judges on a subject of which they cannot, by any stretch of imagina- tion, pretend to have equal knowledge. It would have been infinitely better if they had refrained from voting and had merely passed the resolution on with an explanatory letter. Instead of that, they exercised their veto, after suggesting an invidious distinction between those whose views the proposal embodied and the "really big men of the past whom We do not Hongkong has produced." know if the opinions of these "really big men were socorded the same respect when they resided here, but we do know that some of them-notably Sir THOMAS JACKSON and Mr. T. H. WHITEHEAD- advocated a reform in the governance of the Colony and they do not, unfortun ately, appear to have been accepted as But infallible guides in that matter. what justification is there for assuming that on economic questions the views which they held years ago remain un-

changed cor, in the case of the dead, ' would remain unchanged to-day? If

, the giants of the past were endow- ed with the lofty intelligence attributed to them surely it is at least equally probable that they would have allowed circumstances to modify their views, aa

so many other enlightened men have done. The introduction of their names It served no was very unfortunate. good purpose but has deepened and widened the indignation caused by the Government's action. It will not be surprising if that indignation should find early and vigorous expression. It the view of the Government is right, it' goes a long way to justify Bernhardi's boast that "Hongkong, the great em- porium of Southern China, has been raised to its position of eminence chiefly by German industry."

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