CO129-511-7 Watchmen Ordinance- 1928- petition against certain clauses 18-5-1928 - 21-11-1928 — Page 22

To

Enclosure No. 2.

22

His Excellency Sir Cecil Clementi, K.C.M.G.,

the Governor, and the Members of the Legislative Council of the Colony of Hong Kong.

THE

HUMBLE PETITION of Basant

Singh, Kahair Singh and Sapooran Singh on behalf of themselves and 300 Indians at present residing in the Colony of Hong Kong who follow the occupation of Watchmen, respectfully showeth as follows:-

1. A Bill entitled 66

The Watchmen Bill" was read the first time on the

27th October 1927, as a consequence of which your Petitioners by Counsel humbly drew the attention of the Government and the unofficial members of the Legislative Council to certain provisions in that bill which in their opinion seemed to bear unfairly on them and to reflect adversely on the members of the Indian Community. Your Petitioners were informed by their Counsel that as a result of his representa- tions the bill would be withdrawn or amended.

2. Your Petitioners are all members of the Indian Race, are all natural born British subjects and are the natural spokesmen for Indians in this Colony affected or likely to be affected by the Watchmen Bill now before the Legislative Council. They are further authorized by a considerable majority of the Indians so affected to send this humble Petition on their behalf.

3. Your humble Petitioners pray that the Watchmen Bill now under con- sideration may be reconsidered and effect given to Your Petitioners' views and their interests secured by means of suitable amendments.

4. Your Petitioners respectfully submit that watchmen employed in this Colony are, with few exceptions, either Indian or Chinese and that as the Chinese watchmen are exempt from the compulsory provisions of this bill, the bill, if passed, will be in the nature of a discriminatory measure against Indians who are British subjects, in favour of Chinese who, mostly, are not. This discrimination seems to bear with greater harshness in view of the fact that all Indians are already, in effect, registered with the Police and cannot leave the Colony without the sanction of the Police, whilst Chinese can come and go at will. It is not suggested that Registration of Indian watchmen will itself in any way adversely affect Your Petitioners or those for whom they speak but in the form taken by the bill it does cast a slur on members of the Indian Race as such.

5. It is respectfully submitted that it is contrary to the spirit of the Legislatures of the Empire, including this Colony, to interfere with the private right of contract between members of the community except in certain definite classes of cases which are well known and are all treated in standard legal text books and even then only after the fullest debate and with the utmost care to prevent injustice, whereas Section 3 (1) strikes at the very root of that