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APPENDIX “E.”
Appertaining to Paragraph No. 20 of the Memorial.
Separate Memorandum
COVERING YOUR PETITIONER'S PROTESTS TO GOVERNMENT AT THE 1928 DEVELOPMENT, AND RELATIVE INTERVIEWS; SUBSEQUENT SANCTION OF ALTERNATIVE ROUTES CONFINED TO ITS OWN TRAM TRACK, YOUR PETITIONER'S PETITION TO H.E. THE GOVERNOR AT THAT JUNCTURE; AND, NEGOTIATIONs Resulting IN THE HOTEL COMPANY'S
EVENTUAL OFFER TO DISPOSE OF THEIR
POWERS TO YOUR PETITIONER.
In view of certain disquieting rumours that other interests were endeavouring to obtain permission to operate motor buses along the specific routes of your Petition- er's application of 1925, your Petitioner's General Manager, Mr. L. C. F. Bellamy, on 31st December, 1927, saw the Hon. Mr. E. R. Hallifax, then the Acting Colonial Secretary who, however, stated that he knew nothing about the matter and referred Mr. Bellamy to the Hon. Mr. E. D. C. Wolfe, the then Captain Superintendent of Police with whom, on that day (31st December, 1927) an important inter- view took place. From that interview it was clear that this extremely valuable bus route (which, for brevity, was then referred to as the "Queen's Road route" and is now the No. 5 motor bus route) was to be allotted to the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels, Ltd.
This interview was followed by your Petitioner's initial protest of 3rd January, 1928, by letter addressed to the Captain Superintendent of Police (see Enclosure No. 1).
Your Petitioner grew alarmed at the attitude displayed by the Police and the way in which matters appeared to be pointing, especially as Government a few weeks earlier in an amendment of the Vehicles and Traffic Regulation Ordinance -had, by revoking a then existing Regulation, clothed itself with powers to grant licences for operating motor bus services without first calling for tenders (Regulation No. 689 of Gazette 17th November, 1927).
As a measure of defence your Petitioner consequently applied to Government for authority to operate motor buses over any or all of its tramway routes.
Further, on 24th February, 1928-through the Captain Superintendent of Police your Petitioner repeated as a third official application its two previous applications of 1925 and 1927 for operating the "Queen's Road" motor bus route and announced the intention of ordering immediately six 25-seater buses with which they would operate a first class passenger service "on such route or routes" as might be agreed with the Government (see Enclosure No. 2).
An extract from Mr. Wolfe's reply (Enclosure No. 3 hereof) to that letter reads:-
"I wish it to be understood that any orders you give for buses are given "entirely on your own initiative and that so far as I am concerned you are "in no way authorised to put them on the streets of Hong Kong at present."
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Subsequently, however, and simultaneously with the grant of the exclusive "Queen's Road" rights to the Hong Kong & Shanghai Hotels Ltd. your Petitioner was authorised to operate a bus service (first class fares only) over its tramway routes and two routes were chosen. One, which is now the No. 1 (Happy Valley) Route, and the other, the No. 2 (Taikoo) Route. It is now realized that if Petitioner had not elected to place motor buses on these tramway routes that such services would not have been included in Schedule "A" of Government Notification No. S. 319 of 2nd September, 1932.
your
The Hotel Company commenced operating the "Queen's Road" bus service on October 15th, 1928, and were promptly granted two important extensions :—
(1) from Causeway Bay to Tai Hang Village on 10th November, 1928 and (2) from Whitty Street to Kennedy Town on 3rd December, 1928. These extensions resulted in almost another mile being added to the area of bus and tram competition.
In the meantime and thereafter your Petitioner continued to press the main issue of complaint, namely, question of the "Queen's Road" concession.
From the letter dated 14th March, 1929 (Enclosure No. 4) from your
Petition- er's General Manager to Hon, the Colonial Secretary and the replies thereto dated 17th June and 31st July, 1929 (Enclosures Nos. 5 and 6) will be seen that Govern- ment completely evaded your Petitioner's request for an explanation as to how it came about that repeated applications by your Petitioner to operate the "Queen's Road" bus service were ignored.
It will be observed that no reply to your Petitioner's letter of 14th March, 1929, having been received, your Petitioner on 11th June again wrote to the Colonial Secretary and asked that they might receive a reply. Such reply (dated July 31st, 1929) four-and-a-half months after your Petitioner's first letter-as already stated, made no reference whatever to the crucial enquiry contained in the first paragraph of your Petitioner's letter of March 14th.
In nearly every other electric tramway system in the world there are routes radiating from some part (generally the centre) of the town and bus competition along one of these routes might not seriously affect the financial stability of the Tramway undertaking.
In the case of the Island of Hong Kong, however, there is only one main tram- way route (from East to West). Parallel and very close to this are Queen's Road East, Queen's Road Central and Queen's Road West. Your Petitioner, however, was re- quired to lay its track only partly in Queen's Road.
Thus to give motor bus rights throughout the whole length of Queen's Road to Such a competing company was an exceedingly serious matter for your Petitioner. action, in fact, could only be regarded as reasonable if it were compatible with your Petitioner having refused to supplement its tramways along Des Voeux Road etc. by a motor bus service in Queen's Road.
In the face of such entirely unsympathetic response to all representations it seemed impossible for your Petitioner to obtain the slightest official cognizance of its protests through ordinary channels.
Accordingly, it was resolved to place before the Governor, His Excellency Sir Cecil Clementi, the Petition lodged on the 16th December, 1929 (reproduced as En- closure No. 7 of this Appendix).
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