•
HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
241
ordinary application of the Immigration Law, which, like the immigra- tion law of any other country in the world, makes a list of the types and categories of persons to whom entry is refused.
Now, Sir, the consequence of such liberality of practice in the case of Hong Kong is that many persons come to Hong Kong and remain here who would never have been allowed to enter at all had the normal operation of the immigration laws been applied. Thus, Sir, it can happen, in times of emergency and difficulty, in times when trade has become seriously disrupted, that persons who are in the Colony merely because of the operation of the liberal policy which I described, can become a serious menace to the health and public order of the Colony and a serious burden to its economic structure. Such a situation, of course, becomes aggravated according as conditions of disrupted trade and communications prevail, because such a situation has its natural repercussions upon the prospect of useful employment and remuneration by persons who are not naturally absorbed into the economy of the Colony.
Thus it is, that as conditions improve emergency conditions would recede and I therefore anticipate that this legislation, if enacted, and the necessity for employment of it, will fluctuate according as condi- tions of trade and communications improve. Thus if conditions and communications improve as between Hong Kong and China the neces- sity to employ the legislation would correspondingly recede. In short, the Colony would less and less be faced with the necessity, on the grounds of public order and health, to apply the proposed legislation for the expulsion of persons and, incidentally, to apply the procedure of expulsion which has recently been applied in cities of China itself. As normal conditions are restored by the freedom of trade and com- munications, I feel confident that the necessity for this legislation will very strongly recede. It will no longer be so necessary that persons whose presence in the Colony is an embarrassment because they have no affiliation here should be dealt with by the powers visualised by the legislation, and then the time will come when the operation of clause 14 will become of immediate interest, whereby, upon the resolution of this Council, the legislation proposed will stand suspended.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded, and the Bill was read a Second time.
Council then went into Committee to consider the Bill clause by clause.
Clause 4.
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL:-Sir, I rise to move two amend- ments in this Clause 4 as now before committee.
In the first place, I move that in paragraph (e) of the clause the word "on repatriation" be deleted. I so propose, Sir, because those words, if retained, are too restrictive in that they would render the
14
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.