ļ
CROWDED PUBLIC MEETING AT
THEATRE ROYAL.
THE
RESOLUTION CARRIED WITH ONLY TWO DISSENTIENTS.
A crowded and enthusiastic public meet- ing was held at the Theatre Royal, Hong kong, on April 20th, with the democratic object of giving everybody an oppor tunity of expressing his views on the question of excluding Germans from the Colony after the war. The meeting was presided over by Mr. H. P. White, who was supported on the platform by the Hon. Mr. P. H. Holyoak (Chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce and representative of the Chamber on the Legislative Council), and the Hon. Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C. (representative of the Justices of the Pence on the Legislative Council).
The Chairman and the gentlemen sup porting him were greeted with loud and prolonged applause when they appeared upon the stage to take their seats.
per channels to those at Home who will represent the Colony at the Imperial Conference when the time for doing so has arrived. (Applause.) I now call upon the Hon Mr. P. H. Holyoak to propose a rosolution, which will be open for discussion after it has been seconded, shall be allowed to proceed without undue and I ask, gentlemen, that the discussion eat, and that tolerance may be shown which do not coincide with our own. towards those who may express views
(Applause.)
The Hon. Mr. P. H. HOLYOAK WAS accorded a great ovation when he rose to address the meeting. He said:-Gen- before you at a public meeting because I tlemen, I have brought this resolution was inundated with letters and tele- phonic messages and enquiries aạ to whether the general public of Hongkong could attend the meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, and I was obliged to say "I am afraid you can neither attend, hold you, nor can you vote if you because the building's capacity will not attend, because you are not qualified to do do so.
And in every case the only was
The CHAIRMAN, who was given a rous ing reception, said: Ladies and gentle men, this meeting has been called in response to a widely-expressed wish that the commercial public of Hongkong, out side of the Chamber of Commerce, should be given an opportunity of expressing this:-"you arrange a public meet- their views in regard to the exclusion of ing so that we can have a voice"" That Germans from the Colony for a prescribe why I have ventured to call you ed period after the conclusion of the war. We all realise and recognise that this question is one of Imperial policy, and na such, it will ultimately be determined by the Imperia, Government, which, no doubt will be guided in arriving at a decision by the attitude adopted by the Allied and other Powers. All we main- tain is that the commercial community of this Colony has an undoubted right Lo express its opinion on the question at issue (applause) and that its views should be transmitted through the pro-
together this evening, and I am confident that you will endorse the resolution vhich I am coing to put before you. Applause.) The resolution which I hav
⚫ propose is:-
+
That it is the opinion of this meet- ing that it is in the best interests of the Colony that persons of German nationality should be excluded there- from for a prescribed period of years following the declaration of peace, and that subsequently they be only admitted to the Colony under strict licence."
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the opening events of this war, right down to the last and most borrible of all the sinking of hospital ships with defence! 5. and maimed erentures on board going to a place of refuge. These are horrors which cannot be forgotten for many years to come. (Hear, bear.) I want to iry and prove to you that this German characteristic of brutality is interwoven by education in the Ger- man people that you will not eradicate it, even though they are defeated, for many years to come. Let me quote to you words in support of this, which were uttered not many weeks ago and within the contines of this building by an eminent American professor who is well qualified to speak as a student of inter- national history. These are the words he uttered: Speaking of the arguments of Frederick the Great, designed for the political instruction of the Hohenzollera dynasty, he said: Here we have the beginnings of that which has led to all that bas happened since." I quote it to
Now, gentlemen, you will notice a very, upon the undefended coast and the in- slight difference between the terms of this terior towns of England where Women resolution and that which was adopted and children were satter.d mercilessly, by the Chamber of Commerce. In the the murder of Edith Cavell, and the Chamber resolution, as you know, wė assassination of Laptain rryatt, which the had the words for a period of ten men of the mercantile marine are
hot years, and, in speaking to that sola- likely to forg t for many years to come. tion in the Chamber, I said that the And, mark you, if we do not sup- term ten years was a purely academic port this resolution wo are practically term, and when I said that I meant that telling these men that we are going to the Chamber does not really care whether welcome back with open arms th mur- it is for ten years or for ever-(applause) derers of their comrades in the mercantile or whether it may seem wiser to the marine. (Applause.) There are the Imperial powers, to whom all these ques- Belgian atrocities, which occurred tions must be referred, that it shall be only for a period of shorter duration. But we are determined that whatever duration it shall be for they shall never come back except upon terins by which we can control them. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, the opposition, far as 1 can follow it in the discussions which have taken place, and in the vacious letters, anonymous and otherwise, which have passed through the papers-in a word, the bulk of the important part of the opposition to
to our resolution-is be found in this. First of all, we almost all of us agree on the question of sent went. (Applause.) pen that I shall dwell later, because it is, of necessity, an important part of our case. Second ly, we were told by my hon, friend, the Hon. Mr. Lau Chu Pak-and this was the suru and substance of his argum at, A fas as I understand it, for China or for the Chinese subjects here that the time is inopportune. And, lastly, we have been told that it is impracticable, and that we have not dealt fully with the economic reasons which are inevit you. ably bound up with it. Now, gentlemen, I propose briefly, and as far as lies in Lay humble power, to deal with those three points of view before putting this resolution. I said to the Chamber that you cannot avoid the question of senti- ment in viewing the aftermath of this war, and there I feel that I am upon certain and incontrovertible
ground (Applause.) It is not in the nature of things for those of us who have already been touched by the war, by personal losa or the loss of relatives, and those who will be so touched before the end of the war, to forget it for many years to
come. (Applause.) Neither can we forget th manner in which some of them died - the atrocities which brought their end, the agonising death-struggle through gass- ing, the wholesale murder by the sinking of unarmed and defenceless ships, the hurling of shells through Zeppelin raids
If a ruler is obliged to sacrifice his own person for the welfare of his sub jects, he is all the more obliged to sacri- fice treaty engagements, the continuance of which would be harmful to his coun- try. Is it better that a nation should perish, or that a Sovereign should break his treaty
ed alliances from which you yourself can "Do not be ashamed of making interest derive the whole advantage. Do not make the foolish mistake of not breaking them when you believe your interests re quire it,
When he is about to conclude a treaty with some foreign Power, if a Sovereign remembers he is a Christian, he is lost.
These words represented the sowing. A century and a half later Nietzsche wove the gospel of force into a sort of system,
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