CO129-587-15 Excess Population Reduction Committee Report- Chinese Immigration Bill 1-10-1940 - 6-1-1941 — Page 54

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5. Since then the events in South China have so increased the normal influx and expansion that, whilst certain more conservative authorities estimate the pre- sent population at between 1,750,000 and 1,800,000, others who base their calcula- tion on consumption of rice put it down at well over 2,000,000, though that is probably an over-estimate; whilst police returns relating to the excess of arrivals over departures by steamer indicate that the total is increasing at a rate of about 300 a day. The Director of Medical Services reports that "the overcrowding in the Tung Wah group of hospitals has reached nightmare proportions." Thousands of refugees are congregated in various camps established by the Government or under Government auspices. Not by any means all the refugees in the Colony are penniless, some indeed are very wealthy, others relatively so and able to pay, and those with money have so over-crowded available accommodation that the Colony's own workers have been either crowded out of, or forced to live under over-crowded conditions in, their homes, paying more than they can afford for the barest necessities of life. Many unable to find shelter crowd and beg in the streets, raid plantations for fuel to burn or sell and squat or erect hovels and rain screens on the hillsides and in open spaces in undrained urban areas under sanitary conditions which can only be described as a ghastly menace to public health. These persons overflow everywhere and seriously hamper the military authorities in connexion with the defences, which in this fortress Colony are doubly necessary now that the Colony as well as the sur- rounding areas are involved in war.

6. Whilst the members of this Committee have the utmost sympathy for the sufferings of refugees who have no roots here, the conditions outlined above have convinced them that unless these conditions are altered by a check on the inflow and by a reduction of many new or recent arrivals any attempt to enforce the sanitary and over-crowding provisions of the Public Health Ordinances or to secure to the population the necessary reserves of food for its protection if attacked is met by insuperable difficulties.

7. The Committee have considered and discussed with experts on passenger traffic the institution of a quota system for immigrants such as obtains in other countries where immigration has had to be controlled. In the light of the advice tendered to them by such experts the Committee has decided that a system of entry on passport, travel document or other form of entry permit will be more suitable to the needs of the Colony's trade and the health of its established residents than a quota system under which a legitimate trader or other person with prior claims would have to take his chance of entry equally with one whose only claim to enter was his state of misery or his state of fear.

8. The Committee have not gone into the question of the removal of those who could not be maintained if unfortunately the Colony should be beseiged as that would be outside their terms of reference; but, acting strictly within such terms, the Committee consider that in order "to reduce the excess population of the Colony and to secure that the immigration of further persons is properly con- trolled' immigration to the Colony should be vigorously restricted and the following steps should be taken :-

(1) The suspension of paragraph (b) of section 7 of the Immigration and Passports Ordinance No. 8 of 1934, as amended by Government Notifica- tion No. 933 of 1939, and the addition to section 8 of that Ordinance of a proviso under which a "Bona fide Hong Kong Resident" certificate of identity, with photograph irremovably attached, or a "special entry" pass or landing card issued by or under the authority of the Com- missioner of Police will be accepted as a valid passport or travel docu- ment under that section.

(2) The establishment of points of entry, both on the land frontier and the Colony's coasts, at which alone entry will be permitted, and then only to the holders of valid passports or travel documents or such certificates or entry passes as aforesaid. To cover the case of persons entitled to