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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
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11(e) These percentages have been arrived at from the Com- mittee's knowledge that before the outbreak of hostilities in Hong Kong, the Peninsula and Repulse Bay Hotels were in the main more residential than were the Hong Kong and Gloucester Hotels.
(f) We appreciate that this recommendation is contrary to the practice followed in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world and that it interferes with the normal course of the hotel industry. We consider, however, that the present exceptional circumstances justify our recommenda- tions.
If the implication of paragraph 11 (e) is that because a Hotel as carried on before the war was mainly of a residential character, this fact is itself a justification for compelling it, even against its wishes, to continue this character for an undefined period of time, then, with the utmost respect for the Committee, I can only say I cannot follow the logic of such argument.
Paragraph 11 (f), however, is clear and explicit. The Committee say that although their recommendation that a certain proportion of accommodation be reserved exclusively for residents "is contrary to the practice followed in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world" and "interferes with the normal course of the hotel industry", it is justified by "the present exceptional circumstances". Now what are the exceptional circumstances? The only relevant circum- stance I know of is the painful one of housing shortage. If the word "exceptional is meant to be descriptive of the nature and extent of the shortage in Hong Kong I of course would agree. But I must point out acute housing shortages exist, or have existed, in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world, even in the land of plenty, the United States of America, and I am not aware that Hotels any- where have been compelled to set aside accommodation for residents because of housing shortage.
It seems to me that, under existing circumstances, if a person has been accepted by a Hotel as a resident, the IIotel should not be allowed to turn him out merely to make room for another person. This security of "stay" which is given by the Regulations is in accord with the principle underlying the Landlord and Tenant legislation under which a landlord of a controlled house cannot evict a tenant except on clearly defined grounds. But surely this is an entirely different matter from compelling a Hotel to reserve a definite pro- portion of its available accommodation for residents.
If this Bill does become law it seems to me to be inevitable that, apart from any question of principle, defects and anomalies will emerge as the result of the practical working of this legislation. It may well be that after a certain interval another Committee will have to be appointed to enquire into and recommend to Government what alterations, if any, should be made to the Ordinance or to the
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