CO129-524-12 Issue of Travel Certificates 12-3-1930 - 28-1-1931 — Page 11

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in the form of enclosure No.1 to Sir Cecil Clementi's

despatch. At the same time I venture to remind Your

Lordship that a large and increasing number of persons

of Chinese race in all walks of life can claim Hong

Kong birth and if ordinary passports in general terms

can be claimed by students who se entry into Great

Britain is desirable, they may equally well be claimed

by respectable British born Chinese of the poorer classes

who wish to enter for the purpose of competing in the

home labour market e.g., in the calling of laundry-man.

A student's certificate is a special document which can

be refused without serious difficulty when the special

circumstances appropriate thereto are absent. A

British passport, apart from proof of nationality (according to British Law) and respectability, calls

for no special qualifications in the applicant and if

it can be obtained from the Passport Office in London

should presumably be obtainable by any qualified

applicant from any British passport authority and in

particular by any respectable Hong Kong born Chinese

artisan from the Hong Kong Passport Office.

3.

It is apposite to record here the figures

for the registration of births in Hong Kong of

children of Chinese race during the last few years.

They are:-

Males

1926 Females

1927 Males

Females

1928 Males

Females

1929 Males

2022)- 3224 1202)

4128)- 7176

3048)

5265)-8973

3708

Females

5103) 9272 4169

It.