CO129-590-11 Commission of Enquiry into irregularities in Immigration Departments 22-4-1941 - 19-12-1941 — Page 321

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One of them bears my signature ( newspaper shown to witness). That

is true because Kobza was appointed as general agent and the other

agencies would be cancelled, so as Chairman of that Guild I had to

write this letter to the Chinese members of Council.

Q. And do you not consider that the charges that you made there about

Mr. Kobza were sufficient to excite the population?

A.

There was no alternative but to do this.

Q

•

That is not the point.

You are not answering the question.

A.

That should be explained like that. It will affect the business of

all the studios, so we have to do this.

Q. Naturally, you have to defend your businessrights. But I suggest

that the text of this article is sufficient to account for the

excitement amongst the population, do you agree with that?

A.

Q.

A.

There was strict conversation about the immigration office before

this letter was published. We tried our best to bear it and as we

could not bear it we did this.

You say here for instance that if this plan is a dopted, the plan of a

general agency, "the product will be coarse, due to lack of proper

management."

Mr. Forrest to Chairman.

This is a very rough translation which I had made very rapidly this

morning, Sir. That was written on the 25th January; that was the

letter from the Guild to the Chinese members; and that is a copy of

it.

Chairman:

Who sent it to the Chinese newspapers?

Mr. Wong Tong.

I don't know.

Mr. Forrest:

One further point. Were you ever aware that the appearance of this

article in the Press was the subject of a communication from Mr.

Kobza's solicitors to the newspaper who printed it?

I was not aware of it.