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of creditors seeking to obtain their just deserts from recalcitrant debtors, or the serious
consequences which may flow from non-compliance with orders and judgments lawfully
obtained. The ease with which people can come and go and move their assets out of Hong
Kong is well known, and adds to a creditor's difficulties. I have not overlooked these or
other features of Hong Kong's society of which Mr. McCoy reminded me in the course of
his submissions. Borrowing from the verse of a fellow-countryman (ARD Fairbaim:
Arrowtown) he likened Hong Kong to a place where
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gold pollinated the town."
I am not convinced that his dire forecasts of the consequences of striking down the legislation
in this case would come to pass. But I do recognise the fears and concerns of the business
community and any creditor, if what is and has been a very effective and useful method of
securing the payment of judgment debts is removed from the legal armoury. In Lincoln
International Ltd. v. Feldstein [1973] HKLR 299, Blair-Kerr SPJ had this to say (at 323-
4):-
"Hong Kong lives by its export trade. Hundreds, if not thousands, of manufacturers here deal, and deal only, with purchasers who reside in other parts of the world - men who visit Hong Kong every day for the purpose of inspecting the products they intend to purchase and in order to sign contracts for the purpose of goods manufactured by Hong Kong companies. With improved methods of travel, the world is "shrinking". The jumbo jet to San Francisco is a much more effective way of evading one's creditors than "the night boat to Canton". Time and again during the last 27 years there have been suggestions from that over-sensitive minority in our midst (to whom such catch phrases as "the liberty of the subject" mean so much] that the provisions of 0. 44A should be repealed. Such suggestions have found little favour with the business community in Hong Kong who are all too familiar with overseas debtors who refuse to pay their debts "as well as the "fly-by-night" type of business man who has no real roots in Hong Kong.
I am sure that these sentiments are shared by the vast majority, if not all, in Hong Kong. They are still valid today, subject to one qualification. The size of the "oversensitive
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