CO129-604-5 Immigration- control over entry from China 4-3-1948 - 6-1-1949 — Page 72

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The Excess Population Reduction Committee recommended, inter alia, the suspension of the exemption in the case of persons of Chinese race; but recommended also that Entry Passes and Residential Certificates should be issued locally and accepted for entry into the Colony as the equivalent of passports in the case of those who did not possess passports or travel documents.

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Mr. Middlebrook's scheme elaborates this recommendation and provides also for the issue of Frontier Passes. But the chief feature of his scheme is the establishment of an Immigration Department to take over the duties of the Police Passport Office and to issue all the entry documents, passes and certificates.

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The local issue of residential certificates is not new in the history of the Colony. Thus by Ordinance No. 16 of 1844 "to secure tran- quility and good order in the Colony of Hong Kong and its dependencies and to prevent the resort thereto of abandoned characters and of persons without any ostensible means of subsistence" a Registry was established for the regis- tration of all male residents of the age of twenty-one years and upwards or capable of earning a livelihood; and registration tickets, for which fees were payable, were granted by the Registrar General to applicants who appeared fit and proper persons to be permitted to reside in the Colony. The Registrar General was also empowered to prohibit from residing in the Colony vagabonds or bad characters without visible means of subsistence.

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Similar Ordinances have been enacted from time to time as the development of the Colony required, but generally it has not been found necessary or even desirable, in view of the geographical position of the Colony and the composition of the majority of its inhabitants, to discourage free immigration until the overwhelming influx of refugees during the last two or three years made immigration control a necessity in the interests of health, sanitation and defence.

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The scheme as at present envisaged is an emergency measure to meet abnormal conditions; and it is the intention of the Government to re- examine the whole problem as soon as the situation permits.

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A table of correspondence is attached showing the relation between the new provisions and the enactments they will replace.

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