PASSPORTS ORDINANCE, 1923

PASSPORTS ORDINANCE, 1923

No. 35 of 1923.
An Ordivance to regulate the of persons into the
Colony of Hongkong.

[21st December, 1923.]

1. This Ordinance may be cited as the Passports Ordi-
nance,1923.

2.-(1) It shall be lawful for the Governor in Council to
make regulations for any of the following purposes:-
(a) for prohibiting any person, or any peison of any
specified class, from entering the Colony, by sea, land or air,
without a passport, or without either a passport or some
other approved document establishing the nationality and
identity of sneh, person;
See also No. 2 of 1916.





(b) for enforcing such prohibition by requiring ansivers to
inquiries, and by arrest, search, detention and expulsion; and
(c) generally for the purpose of establishing and main-
taining control over the admission of persons into the Colony.
(2) The regulations in the Schedule shall be in force
except as they may be altered or amended by regulations
made under this Ordinance.
(3) All regulations made under this Ordinance shall be
laid on the table of the Legislative Council at the first
meeting thereof held after the publication in the Gazette of
the making of such regulations, and if a resolution is passed
at the first meeting of the Legislative Council held after such
regulations have been laid on the table of the said Council
resolving that any such regulation shall be rescinded, or
amended in any manner whatsoever, the said regulation
shall,. without prejudice to anything done thereunder, be
deemed to be rescinded, or amended, as the case may be, as
from the date of publication in the gazette of the passing of
such resolution.

3.-(1) It shall he lawful for any police officer to arrest
any person whom he may reasonable suspect of having com-
mitted an offence against this Ordinance, and to search any
such person and the effects of any such person wherever
situate : Provided that no fernale shall be searched except
by a female.
(2) -NTo person shall resist or obstruct any such arrest or
search.
4.--(1) In any prosecution under this Ordinance, it shall,
until the contrary, is proved, be presumed-
(a) that the -accused was not an exempted person at the
time of the alleged offence;
(b) that the accused was not a British subject at the time
of the alleged offence; and
(c) that the accused entered the Colony after the com-
mencement of this Ordinance,
(2) If any person, upon demand by -any police officer,
produces neither a valid passport nor some other official
document establishing his nationality and identity which has
been approved by the. Captain Superintendent of Police, it
shall, until the contrary is proved, be presumed, that such
person entered the Colony without a valid passport.





Every person who contravenes any of the provisions of
this Ordinance or of any regulation made thereunder shall
upon summary conviction be liable to a fine not exceeding
two hundred and fifty dollars and to imprisonment -for any
term not exceeding six months.

SCHEDULE. [s. 2 (2).]

Passport Regulations
1. No person shall enter the Colony unless he has in his possession and
brings with him into the Colony a valid passport : Provided that no person
shall be convicted of an offence against this regulation if he proves that he
had in his possession and brought with him into the Colony some other
official document establishing his nationality and identity and subsequently
approved by the Captain Superintendent of Police.

2. No passport shall he deemed to be valid unless-
(1) it was issued or renewed to the holder, by or on behalf of the Govern-
ment of the state of which be is a subject or citizen, not more than two
years before his arrival in the Colony ; and
(2) it has a photograph of the person to whom it relates so affixed as to
obviate the possibility of its removal and the substitution of anothef
photograph ; and

(3) in the case of a person who is not a British subject, it bears a visa, by
British consular officer in. a foreign state or by a duly authorised public

officer in some part of His Majesty's dominions, which was granted not
more than one year before the arrival of such person in the Colony, and
which is not, by or in consequence of its terms, inapplicable to the journey
oil which the holder is engaged or which he has completed by his arrival
in. the Colony.

3. Every person who possesses a passport, or other official document
establishing his nationality and identity, shall, upon demand by any police
officer, produce such passport or such other document forthwith for the
inspection of such police officer.
4.(1) If any person is convicted of an ofrence against Regulation

of these regulations, it shall be lawful for any magstrate to order that
such person shall be expelled from the Colony.

(2) Any such order sball have the effect of authorising any police officer
to arrest and detain such person and to do all such other acts as inay be
necessary to enable such person to be expelled from the Colony by such
ship or route as the Governor way determine.

5. These regulations shall not apply to the following:-
(1) persons of or under the age of fifteen years
(2) persons of Chinese race ;
(3) persons who pass through the waters of the Colony without landing
in the Colony.

As amended by Law Rev. Ord., 1924.
[Originally No. 35 of 1923. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Regulations. Schedule. Arrest and search. Presumptions. Penalties.

[Originally No. 35 of 1923. Law Rev. Ord., 1924.] Short title. Regulations. Schedule. Arrest and search. Presumptions. Penalties.

https://oelawhk.lib.hku.hk/items/show/1374

1923

v5

115

No. 35 of 1923

3