CO129-448 - Governor Sir May - 1918 [4-6] — Page 559

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12. Apart from the question of subsistence albowances and

pensions, which is not dealt with in the Ordinance, but upont

which the final unofficial members of Council were satisfied,

the principal discussion on the bill centered round the grounds

of exemption which are dealt with in paragraph (a) of sub-sec-

tion (4) of section 6. This paragraph lays down two grounds

of exemption, and they are the only grounds of absolute exemp-

tion. The two grounds are Imperial interests, and the essen-

tial interests of the Colony. The unofficial members thought

that the second of these two grounds provided much too exacting

a standard, especially in view of the stress laid on behalf

of the Government on the need for men, on the impossibility of

maintaining the trade of the Colony to the same extent as at

the time of the Military Service Commission, and on the consider.

ation that the final test in all cases must be the test of

Imperial interests. This last point was referred to on be-

half of the Government because it was felt that, though the

essential interests of the Colony were made a separate ground

of exemption, the only reason why the interests of the Colony were to be considered was that the continued existence of the

Colony and of its trade was itself an Imperial interest.

an informal meeting before the second reading the four non-

Chinese unofficial members proposed that the following words

should be substituted for the words "or in the essential in-

terests of the Colony",

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"er in the essential interests of the

"maintenance and protection of British

"trade in the Far East or in the Colony,

"or in the essential interests of the

"Colony, commercial or otherwise".

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