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THE HONGKONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
At a monthly meeting of the General Committee of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce held in the Chamber Rom. City Hall, on Tuesday, 7th July, 1903, at 3.45 p.m. Present: Mr. E. A. Hewett (Chairman), Mr. D. R. Law (Vice-Chairman) Hou. C. W Dickson, Mesirs C. Michelan, N. A. Liebs, J. Smith, H. E. Tomkins, RC. Wilcox. A. t. Wood, and A. R. Lowe (decretary. Abseut:- Hou. R. Shewan (ex officio).
MINUTES,
The minutes of the list monthly meeting held on the 9th ultimo were read and opafirm 41.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND Hongkong the course is one which this Chamber undoubtedly feels to be serialy regrettable.
4. The object that my committee has in directing me to communicate with you on this subject, is respectfully to enquire whether some means of an examination of Chinesa could not be devised and pat iuto practice of so passengers from Hongkong for Singapore
much more stringent a nainre as would be likely to reduce to a minimum the chances of plague cases occurring on the voyage or arris ing here.
NEW MEMBERS OF CAMBER. The Secretary reported that Messrs. Goddard and Douglas and Barretto & C. had beau elected to membership since the last meeting subject to the usual confirmation by the members at the uext annual veneral meeting.
THE CURRENCY QUESTION. Read letter, dated 25th ultimo, fron
the ! Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, asking whether this Chamber would be prepared to join with theirs aud that of Tientsin in & Memorial addressed to the Doyen of the Diplo- matic Corps at Poking urging that the Chinese Government should have brought before it the imperative necessity of remedy being found for the present unsatisfactory siate of its! currency and the desirability of its making immediate preparations for the introduction of an uniform national coinage preparatory to any scheme which might eventually be brought forward involving the introduction of a gold standar1.
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.Th list thing that Singapore would ever desire is to have quarautin or prohibition applying here to staimers amicite from Hing derived of reducing the risk of kong and if any action on
minimum. it would not be less agy mobile to as than we feel it w-d be to our nigroars and friends of Houg long.
The draft Memorialdraw up by the shanghai Chamber was discussed and, as its terms
i prac. tically followed the same lines which this Cham- ber intimited ou the 12th ultimo to the Tientsin Chamber any petition it was thought desirable to present at this early stage of th question should take, the Com nittes decided to send a reply agreeing to join in the Memorial as drafted.
STEAMSH P SUBSIDIE',
A copy of the raport of the Select Com nittes of the House of Comm ns appointel to
81q ire into the sub idi s to steamship companies and sailing vessels unter Foreigd Governmat an! the effect theraby produced on British trade which had been forwarded by the Colonial Secretary for the information of the Chamber, was laid on the table.
OFFICIAL CODE CABULARY.
The CHAIRMAN said that with reference to the telegram sent on the 12th of May list a reply had been received informing his Chamber that the British Postmaster-General has agreed to bring the Chamber's protest against the proposed compulsory adoption of the vocabulary before the International Telegraph Conference, and bat it was nuderstood the British Postal authorities were also opposing its compulsory, use.
PROHIBITION OF COOLIE IMMIGRATION IN SINGAPORE FROM HONGKONG. The following letter was read:
Chamber of Commerce,
ingapore, 12th June, 1903. DEAR SIR-I have the honour to enclose for the informati n of your Chamber copies of the following correspondence-Letter from Colonial Secretary, dated the 11th inst. Reply thereto from the Chamber of Commerce, d ted the 12th inst. in connection with the prohibition of immigration of coolies from Hongkong-of which you have doubtless received official notification in consequence of the number of cases of plague that have recently occurred on board steamers arriving here with coolies from your port.
2. It will be observed that the Austrian steamer Melpomene, which arrived here on the 10th instant, reported three deaths from plague during the voyage, and that two cases of plagu were found on board upon her arrival. Further that this is the fourth time recently that plague has been found on vessels from Hongkong.
3. While my Committee feel compelled to support the Government of this Colony in any responsible course taken to keep Singapore free from so dire a calamity as would be the intro duction of plague among our community, still from the point of view of inter-trade with
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I have the honour to be, Sir' your obedient servaut,
The SECRETARY
ALEX GUNN, Secretary.
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[Jnly 18, 1903. bation amongs: the junk and sampan popula tion of a card showing only the few s'gnals in their altered form necessary for 1 cal needs with a note that ther signals shown are intended only for sea-going craft. This would. obviate th⋅ confusion in their minds with it is aparently thought might be occasioned on their being supplied with a copy of the wl ole code.
I am also directed to saquire whether His Excellency has favourably a insid red the farther suggestions put forward by the Chamber for the group ofheisney of the log: Obserritory by th- is a lishing of Stations direct telepitanie
Hub ar
To breng Sip Olympedang and Offi
r4(1•vetrj!(534. sin d'an cla daile tom graphic observations 201 then observatories, the supply of the lat at in-transats, and the pablishing of any information offered by other observatorias, which were contained in the special report enclosed in my letter of 13th January last and which suggestions my Committee trust have met with His Excellency's approval.- I have the, etc.,
A. R. L WE,
Secretary.
Colonial Becretary's Office,
Chamber of Commerce, Hongkong. A long discussion followed and it was decided to reply that the benefits to Hongkong from the coolie traffic with Singapore were only The Hon. COLONIAL SECKETARY, derived from the passage money, and they were not of a sufficioutly remunerative nature to allow of any expense being incurred at this ead. If therefore Chinese coolies were necessary in order to supply the labour-market in Singapore it would doubtless be to the advantage of that Colony to found a segregation camp on one of the namerous islands near thera where the colies could be landed fres of any further cost or delay to carrying steamers.
BUGAR CONVENTI N.
Further parliamentary papers forwarded by the Colonial Secretary relating to the ratifier tion of the Brussels Sugar Convention were laid on the table.
Hongkong, 2nd July, 1913. SIB, I am directed to acknowledg the receipt of your letter of the 25th ultimo regard- ing the introduction of the flag system of weather siguals, and to inform you that before giving his final decision in the matter Hs Exell no the Governor had carofully and anxiously considered the correspondence from the beginning, with every desire to meet the wish 8 of the Chamber of Commerce bat with a full sense of his responsibility in ordering a change in a system of signalling which the officials of the local Observatory aud the Harbour Master consider practically superior to that adopted at sicawei. His Excellency's ultimate decision was to add the flag signals as used at Shangšai as în lopo deut FIR-I am directed to acknowledge the receiptizuals for the shipmasters who seem to desiro of your letter of 2'st ultiao intimating that them, les ing the present cone system intact. His Excellency the Governor had decided to introduce at the Hongkong Observatory the Bar system of weather signals for the informa- tion of shipmasters, similar to that in use at Shanghai, and that the present cone system would be continued for the information of the ocal junk population.
8 ORM-WA NINGS.
The following correspondence was read:-
General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 25th June, 19 3.
The Committee of the Chamber desire me to convey their thanks to the Government for agreeing o institute this much needed reform in the system of weather signals.
In view, however, of the recommendation made by this Chamber in the report of the Sub-committee appointed to ex imine com munications received from the shipping community on this subject that symbols W ra more economical and easier to work than figs, were better understood by landsmen, and the adoption of the cods from the 37 special distance signals of the Commercial Code made it equally understood by the seafaring community and that it was pointed out the siguals could be increased, if found necessary, by further combinations of the three symbols employed or by simil r siguals displayed from the yard-ar.n, it seems to the Committee that under the latter suggestiou 117 separate signals could be mad, or more than those employe in the recautly extended code at Shirghai, a copy of which is enclosed.
In supporting the adoption of a symbol code it may be mentioned that great weight was given to the argument brought forth in your latter of 31st July las', and also adhered to in your further letter of 10th September, 1902, that a flag system is not suited to local condi- tions on the ground that, in the calm weather usually preceding typhoons, such signals would often not be readily distinguishable; my Coin- mittee therefore respectfully suggest that the decision of His Excellency to adopt a flig system in preference to oue of symbols may be reco sidered.
With regard to the disinclination shown to alter the present symbol signals because of the local junk population's familiarity with them, I am to point out that this difficulty might easily be overcome by the publication and distri-
His Excell-ney's reasons for so doing was that in your letter of Mar 1 th, 1912, you s'ated that your Committee were anxious for the adoption of the fag signals on the ground that Shanghai p› sessed a code of signals which was
admittedly the b3зt in the Far East." Iu your letter of the 23rd Angust, 1902, you re- pat-d that the flag code " has for a number of years been in daily use in Shanghai, where it has given the greatest satisfaction to ship. masters frequenting the po t"; yon adl that "the adoption of a flag sigal service, which would be principally for the ue of the foreign shipping in harbour, need not necessitate the abolition of the present drum, coae, and ball signals shown by H.M.S. Tamar for the benefit of native shipping oraft," and, farther pointed out that the code has been generally adopted by the German, Russian, and Chinese Governments along the cast of China.
His Excellency feals that on consideration your Chamber will acknowledge the inconveni ence of unduly multiplying systems of typhoon warning, and therefo e in deciding to meet as far a His Excellency considered justifiable the wish s of your (hamber, His Excellency con. sidered it preferable to add a co b that has been declared by them to be satisfactory and that has been generally adopted over the coast of China rather than to introduce a new system different from that hitherto adopted in the
Far East
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I shall address you further regarding thi points raised in the last paragraph of your letter ander acknowledgement.-I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
F. II. MAY, Colonial Secret ry. SECRETARY, Chamber of Commerce.
The HAIRMAN said that as the Government had definitely decided not to introd ice an ex- tended symbol system for weather signals, it would be necessary to let the matter rest until sufficient time had elapsed to enable the new flag system to receive a fair trial. JUNKS FLYING FOREIGN FLAGS IN ORDER TO EVADE PATMENT OF CHING FEI TAX, The SECRETARY reported that in answer to
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