CO129-542-3 Foreshore and Sea-bed Works Bill- correspondence 9-1-1933 - 16-8-1933 — Page 22

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to

(that is allowed for if he were the judge of the necessity!)

All.

expropriation of private interests any

compensation likely to be awarded would be

He distrusted the capacity of

useless.

the Hong Kong judges to decide compensation

cases, though he admitted that this difficulty

had been met to some extent by the provision

enabling the appointment of assessors to

assist the judge.

What he most strongly objected to was

the taking of general powers in this Bill.

So

^

He would not strongly oppose the taking of

powers to acquire private rights xx in individual

cases in which it was necessary in the

public interest to interfere with th

private enterprises. He expressed the fear

feneral

that the Governor would, if these powers

were granted, put forward extravagant or

unreasonable proposals for expropiating

private enterprise at great cost to the

Colony; and he did not appear to derive any

satisfaction from my assurance that the

Governor would not be able to initiate large

enterprises of that nature without the

approval of the Secretary of State.

He

"(beyond the works,

an

allend mitinted, am the Vehicular Jerry

wanted to know what special works the Govr.

had in mind when preparing the Bill. So far

as he was aware, there was no immediate

necessity for taking special powers of this

nature. I gave him the substance of the

second paragraph of the Governor's despatch

of 29th March but informed him that we had not

x

received any schedule of works likely to be

undertaken under the powers given by the Bill

if it is passed.

Mr.