Counsel contended that, if the Council heard-any argument at all it was a one-sided inquiry without any person from the club being heard, and the club actually knew nothing about any inquiry. Next the Council made complaints about unseemly conduct in the club, to which the answer was given that, if there was any objection to the member to whom it was asked that the licence be transferred, they were quite willing to substitute any one of several others, whilst the club considered that its internal doings had nothing whatever to do with the Council. Finally the Council were asked what was required to qualify the club for a licence. Then the members were told that the Council wanted a statement as to the status of the club, a guarantee as to its conduct, the insertion of the clause that the police should visit it periodically, and that the membership should be limited to 30. There was a further reference to unsatisfactory conduct, but again no particulars were given. After a threat of legal proceedings, the Council gave way somewhat, but they still insisted on periodical visits by the police. There were four other clubs free from such conditions, said counsel, and there was never any suggestion of it in connexion with this club when Mr. Chun Bing-him was president.
Regarding the Council's cortention in their defence that they were empowered to make new by-laws, Mr. McDonald pointed out that they could do so only provided that the new by-law was not ultra vires. This was an attempt to give the police the power to enter pri-vote premises without a search warrant or due process of the law. The particular clause -about periodical visitation by the police was not a condition which could be imposed under By-law XXXIV, and it was not within the power of the Council themselves to impose such a condition unless the Land Regulations were altered, or unless the Land Regulations imposed the condition, which they did not. _It could not be enforced against any of the foreign clubs and therefore it was an unjust attempt to discriminate against the Chinese. It was unreasonable and as such it must be felt to be a ground of grievance. The Council had stated that it was impossible to apply the laws of European countries to the extraordinary conditions ruling in this Settlement, but what they meant by that he (Mr. McDonald) had no idea. Under British law the police only had the right to enter club premises with a search warrant.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.