CO129-537-6 Foreshores and Sea Bed Amendment Ordinance 1932 18-8-1932 - 17-1-1933 — Page 41

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Hongkong Ordinance and ignore what doesn't. Their skill

in chicane and their jealousy, on occasion, of foreign

rights, are so great, that there is always the danger of

their squeezing out foreign interests by administrative

abuses. You will see from the enclosed memorandum, written before we received a copy of the Hongkong Ordinance, the

kind of difficulties in connexion with foreshore cases with

which we have recently had to deal and which give point

to the fear I have mentioned.

It

I suppose it is now too late to consider whether

anything could be done, by altering the terms of the

Ordinance, to avoid giving a handle to the Chinese.

might be a difficult matter, no doubt, in any case, and we

cannot of course claim to object to Hongkong legislation,

if it is reasonable and expedient in itself, on the ground

of possible undesirable effects on British interests in

China, unless the harm in China is likely to be dispro-

portionate to the good in Hongkong, but you will perhaps

bear in mind that Hongkong legislation may have ill-effects

outside