CO129-555-1 Hong Kong Tramways Ltd.- petition 10-7-1935 - 4-10-1935 — Page 3

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is that Government in accepting the highest

tender must have been aware that the firm

concerned were gambling. In 1933, only four

months after commencing operations, the motorbus

licensees applied for and obtained from

Government permission to extend their routes

and to charge second-class fares on certain

additional routes which competed with the

tramways. The petitioner complains both that

this alteration in the terms under which the

exclusive licence is operated is unjust to

them both as the Tramway Company thereby

subjected to unfair and uneconomic competition,

and as tenderers for the exclusive bus licence,

also

and that it is scandalous that the change was

made without giving them an opportunity to make

representations.

4. The Tramway Company claims that the

question of transportation principle, viz.,

whether the Company is being subjected to

unfair and uneconomic competition, should be

referred to the Ministry of Transport, that the

Hong Kong Government should be directed to

revert to its former policy of prohibiting

motorbus fares on competitive routes from being

less than the first-class tram fare, that in

future when new or extended routes, increased

services or variations in fares of buses are in

contemplation, the Tramway Company should have

full opportunity of submitting representations,

and finally that in view of the altered circum-

stances resulting from bus competition, the

Tramway