CO129-476 - Acting Governor Claud Severn & Governor Sir Stubbs - 1922 [8-12] — Page 170

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"waking enormous profits; and there has been not one complaint. "The Shipowners' Protection Association, whose titie explains "its object, has maintained most cordial relations with the "Goverment wroughout, alu was 。iven very great assistance, "The Association's Chairman, Mr.5,T,Williamson, put nis "experience and advice woolly at the Government's service, "and ne uiú men to solve difficulties and to smooth away "misunderstandings, It may be recorded that, in spite of the

"many points of law which arose and the inevitable differ-

"ences of opinion, every question in uispute was invariably "settled in a spirit of friendly compromise.“

The shipowners protection Association of Hongkong also

wish to place on record that they have no cause of complaint

as to the treatment they received from the Government as they

received throughout every courtesy.

When the above snips were taken under control by the

Hongkong Government and the earings sequestereu, the snip-

owners concerned were under the impression that the sequester-

eu earnings would be remitted to mi。land in furtherance of

The Great War, and it came to them as a great surprise in

January 1920 when the then fion. Colonial Secretary of the

Colony made a statement in the Legislative Council to the

effect that the earnings in question nau not been remitted

to kişialu but were still in hongkong, that the anglish

Government did not require these monies, anu that the

Government of lionskonę proposed to use them for building a

hotel and flats in the Peninsula of Kowloon, This allocation

did not meet with the consent or approval of the owner's

concerned, and they thereupon commenced an action against the Hongkong Government in respect of the steamship "Vollowra" asking for the return of the earnings still remaining in the nauds of the liongkong Goverment; such action was brought by them in the nature of a test action, but the, nave since