3
attention was drawn to the case of the Credit Foncier
A
d'Extreme Orient, a Franco-Belgian firm holding very
large properties in the Colony by process of mortgage
and foreclosure, which has been criticized for its
tendency to convert tenement houses into factories at
a time when housing accommodation is an acute problem.
Before he left Sir Geoffry Northcote expressed the view,
with which I respectfully concur, that this last
consideration is not wholly relevant to the general
question, as any policy of town-planning and zoning will
be applicable alike to British and foreign land-owners.
A further suggestion has been made that it
might be desirable, at least for the duration of the war,
4.
that the acquisition of land by any non-British
individuals and corporations should only be allowed
sparingly.
This raises important questions of principle
involving as it would many thousand owners of Chinese
race born outside the Colony. Even were the restriction
applied only to foreign corporations of the nature of
the Crédit Foncier it is thought that this might be
evaded by their forming a company in the Colony or by
using the medium of trustees.
5.
I enclose the copy of a minute written in 1936
by the Attorney General when an application, similar
to that which has given rise to the present discussion,
was under the consideration of the Executive Council.
6.
I should be grateful to know whether similar
problems have arisen in other dependencies and, if so,
how they have been met.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant.
N.L. Smink
Officer Administering the Government.
7
Pag
Pag
Copied from C.S.0.602/161. Credit Foncier D'Extreme Orient. Application for permission to acquire immovable property in the Colony.
8
END
Hon. C.S.,
1. In England a foreign company is under the disabilities imposed by the Mortmain Acts and has to obtain a licence from the Home Secretary to enable it to hold land in mortmain (5 Hailsham's Halsbury p.865).
2. In this Colony the special consent of the Governor in Council is required under section 320(1)(c) of
the Companies Ordinance No. 39 of 1932 and in the case of this Company, which is a loan and mortgage company, it has been the practice of the Governor in Council to grant general permission to take mortgages on immovable property in the Colony, provided that each mortgage is reported to the Government and that foreclosure is not resorted to without
the special consent of the Governor in Council.
3. According to the Land Officer the Company now
owns over 50 lots (acreage not stated).
4. If in these applications we could observe a
tendency of this foreign corporation, which is, I understand, financed by the Jesuit Missions Etrangères, to buy up the Colony and thus become everyone's landlord, I think, on the general principles governing Mortmain, permission should be refused.
5. But I do not observe that tendency here.
It
is a loan and mortgage company which would, I am sure, prefer to sell the properties when the mortgagors make default but is unable to do so because the property market is depressed and there are no buyers.
6. I think the Governor in Council should give
permission in this case.
Sd. C.G. Alabaster
A. G.
3. 3. 36.
ge 7
ge 7
54061
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.