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An international Chamber from the beginning

By WK Chan

On May 29, 1861, some 62 business people -- representing 51 merchant houses, five banks and six individuals -- got together at the Hong Kong Club and founded the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

From the beginning the Chamber was a very international business organisation. As the Chamber's own record testifies, the Chamber membership was open to "all mercantile firms and persons engaged or interested in the commerce or shipping of China."

The biggest national group of members was the British, but they numbered less than half with just 26. Other founding members consisted of Parsee (Persian Indian), American, German, Indian, Danish, Jewish, and French merchants. There were no Chinese members because the local Chinese merchant community was not yet developed, but once the latter was well established, the Chinese began to be involved from 1880.

The first chairman of the Chamber was Alexander Perceval, a partner of Jardine Matheson & Co from 1852 to 1864. The vice chairman, William Walkinshaw, was a partner of Turner & Co. Together with seven other members -- Charles Murray, John Gibb, Warren Delano, R.M. Reddie, Pestonjee Dhunjeebhoy, Woldemar Nissen and W. Parkin -- they formed the first General Committee of the Chamber.

It is noteworthy that the first General Committee consisted of an American (Warren Delano of Russell & Co), a Parsee (Pestonjee Dhunjeebhoy), and a German (Woldemar Nissen of Siemssen & Co).

This international character has remained throughout the Chamber's history. According to the Chamber's own reports, in the first Annual General Meeting after World War II held in April 1947, Chairman R D Gillespie "took the opportunity of dispelling the doubts, which seemed to exist in some quarters, as to membership of the Chamber being open to firms other than British as this was an international Chamber and membership was open to all firms of standing in the colony of whatever nationality."

Today the Chamber's membership consists of companies from 49 countries from around the world. The General Committee is made up of members holding Chinese (Hong Kong or Mainland), British, American, Indian and Dutch nationalities.

The voice of business

The name "Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce" was formally proposed by John D Gibb of Gibb Livingston & Co and adopted by members of the Chamber in its second General Meeting held on June 14, 1861.

The object of the Chamber, as spelled out by the founders was as follows:

"That the object of the Chamber shall be to watch over and protect the general interests of commerce, to collect information on all matters of interest to the mercantile community, and to use every means in its power for the removal of evils, the redress of grievances, and the promotion of the common good; to communicate with authorities and others thereupon to form a code of practice whereby the transaction of business may be simplified and facilitated; to receive references, and to arbitrate between disputants, the decision in such references to be recorded for future guidance."

To paraphrase it in today's language, the Chamber was to be the voice of business, to promote, represent and safeguard the interests of the Hong Kong business community. That is indeed what the Chamber has been doing to this date.

Providing business information is a major priority of the Chamber. That task started right from the beginning, when the Chamber collected and kept a list of books, papers and price information. In 1862 this evolved into a fortnightly "market report and price current" published by the Chamber after obtaining agreement from several firms to furnish the information.

At the General Meeting held in May 1863 the Chairman, James Macandrew, emphasised that the General Committee "were always anxious to ascertain the views of members on such topics of mercantile interest as might come before them, and it would tend greatly to strengthen their hands, and frequently prove of general public service if members would occasionally at all events initiate the action to be taken by, and suggest subjects for, the consideration of the Committee."

This was indeed adhered to by successive General Committees which, today, is supported by 25 special interest committees within the Chamber.

Government officials nowadays are used to receiving "statements" and "position papers" from the Chamber on issues affecting the commercial well-being of the business community.

In the old days these were known as "petitions" and "memorials;" they were commonplace and ranged in subject from the Chinese Maritime Customs Service to transit dues, exemption certificates, coast trade, post office regulations, etc. And the Chamber proved to be an effective voice.

In 1863, for instance, a bill intended to give the Post Office the right to compel vessels to carry mail without compensation and to detain and search vessels on account of contraband letters was strongly resisted by the Chamber, which succeeded in burying the bill. Another example shows how in 1872 the Chamber urged the government to take steps to arrange for the proper lighting of the approaches to the harbour.

Then, just as now, the Chamber not only spoke on trade policies and commercial operations, but also sought to promote, in the broader context, an environment conducive to trade and commerce. At its inception, for example, the Chamber called for adequate trade statistics to be developed; it pushed for the necessity of trade statistics again in 1917 and is still promoting the same today.

The Chamber is now a fully e-capable organisation at the forefront of information technology -- as early as 1914 it pioneered the use of wireless communication. It influences local policies such as on taxation, but then it did the same from day one. It helped found business interest groups such as the Hong Kong Shipowners' Association in the 1920s; it founded the Business Coalition on the Environment in 1999. In short, for 14 decades no issue that "matters" has failed to catch the attention of this Chamber.

A part of the community, a witness of the times

The inaugural general meeting of the Chamber was held in the Hong Kong Club. The government then provided a room at the Court House for the Chamber to conduct its day-to-day business until June 30, 1862, when the Chamber moved to privately rented premises.

Since then the Chamber's office has moved several times, from the City Hall to St George's Building and Swire House, among others. In 1984, the Chamber purchased permanent accommodation at United Centre in Admiralty, which now houses the Chamber's headquarters.

The Chamber was established as a champion of the business sector, but it also took up other matters that concerned the community in general. For example, in 1883, Chamber Chairman F B Johnson urged the reclamation of the whole seafront so that a suitable tram service could be maintained. In 1894 the Chamber was invited to deliberate on regulations arising from the outbreak of bubonic plague which killed thousands of people. The regulations were introduced to improve the sanitary condition of the territory but the manner in which they were enforced drew heavy criticism from the Chinese community. The Chamber, as a conciliator, concluded that there were grounds for the complaints, and asked the government to make modifications to concede to the objections of the Chinese.

In 1867 the Chamber's Annual General Meeting was open to the press. From that year, Chamber matters were brought into the public domain.

In March 1926, the General Meeting was attended by the then Governor, Sir Reginald Stubbs. In recent years, it has become almost a tradition for the Governor, and after 1997, the Chief Executive, to attend the first meeting of the General Committee after the Annual General Meeting.

January 1884 signified the Chamber's formal involvement in Hong Kong's political system, with the addition of a member to the territory's Legislative Council who was elected by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.

This was the result of the call by Chamber Chairman F B Johnson, in the Annual General Meeting on March 14, 1883, for a Legislative Council which should be more representative of the community's interests.

In December 1883, the Chamber was informed that "on the recommendation of the governor, Her Majesty has been pleased to confer upon this Chamber the privilege of nominating for His Excellency's approval one member to a seat in the Legislative Council of the Colony."

At a special General Meeting held on January 2, 1884, at City Hall, Thomas Jackson, chief manager of the Hongkong Bank, was elected the first Chamber Legco representative, and the Chamber became the first "functional constituency" in Hong Kong's law making body.

Ad Persona

An organisation is what its members are. Indeed, throughout its 140-year history the Chamber has been given its character, its flesh and blood, by the many remarkable people who together built the Chamber into what it is today.

One of the longest serving chairman of the Chamber was Phineas Ryrie, who was Chamber chairman for 12 years between 1867 and 1889.

Mr Ryrie arrived in Hong Kong in 1851 to join Turner & Co. He took an active role in the early years of the Chamber and became chairman in 1867. In the same year he was appointed a member of the Legislative Council. Although not then as a representative of the Chamber -- the Chamber not having been formally given a Legco seat until 1884 -- he was recognised as a champion of the interests of the business community.

Mr Ryrie was also renowned for promoting freedom of speech in Legco and under his chairmanship, the press was first admitted into the Chamber's Annual General Meeting. A socially conscious businessman, he was a leader in the protest against licensed gambling in 1868 and spearheaded a Chamber submission to government to that effect.

Mr Ryrie's record was matched by E W Hewett, head of Peninsula and Oriental, who held the office of chairman for 12 years continuously from 1903 to 1915 and also represented the Chamber on the Legislative Council from 1906 to 1915. A well-respected businessman, he was reputed as a fast and polished speaker who often created sparks with the then governor, Sir Henry May, when the two disagreed in the Legislative Council.

The longest serving Chamber representative on the Legislative Council was Thomas Whitehead of Standard Chartered Bank who held that office from 1890 to 1902.

Among the many things for which he was well known was his reputation as a constitutional reformer, which he acquired after organising a petition from the Hong Kong ratepayers to the British Parliament asking for a system of representative government to be introduced in Hong Kong.

The first ethnic Chinese elected chairman of the Chamber was Jack Tang of South Sea Textile Manufacturing Company Ltd. He was elected to the General Committee in 1980, and became chairman in 1984. He was also the first chairman of the Chamber to visit Beijing in that capacity, in June 1984, and held discussions with the late Deng Xiaoping on the future of Hong Kong.

The effort of the chairmen and General Committee in steering the Chamber has been supported and complemented by a remarkably stable secretariat which, for the past 100 years, has changed hands only five times.

By the turn of the last century the secretarial work was undertaken by Lowe Bingham and Matthews -- the predecessor of Price Waterhouse -- which served for 23 years as secretary.

In 1924, M F Key became secretary and he held that position for 23 years until the early years after World War II. He was followed by J B Kite who became secretary in 1947 for a record 28 years. By the time his successor, Jimmy McGregor, took over in 1975 the designation had changed to director. After 13 years as director Mr McGregor was succeeded by Brigadier Ian Christie in 1988, who retired from the Chamber in 1997 when Dr Eden Woon took over as the first ethnic Chinese director of the Chamber.

The contribution of these and many other able people of the Chamber is perhaps best summed up by Governor Sir Robert Black's tribute in 1961, on the occasion of the Chamber's 100th Anniversary.

Sir Robert described the Chamber as being made up of people who "Work both for the promotion of integrity in business transactions and for the promotion of the common good through expansion and development of our economic life, which, in bringing prosperity to Hong Kong, will assist in improving the circumstances of all who live here."

An international Chamber with Chinese characteristics

Recognising the increasingly established nature of the Chinese merchant community, in the 1879 General Meeting presided by William Keswick of Jardine Matheson, a motion was proposed by W H Forbes and seconded by Mr Arnhold, that Messrs Lee Sing, Lee Tak-cheong, and Ching Sing-yeong be elected members of the Chamber. Accordingly, in 1880, three Chinese firms, namely, the Sun Yee Hong, the Lai Hing Hong, and the Tak On Bank, were elected as the first Chinese members of the Chamber.

The Chinese members quickly took on an active role in the Chamber's affairs. This was exemplified by the General Meeting of 1881 when Ho Amei of the On-Tai Insurance Company made a speech proposing that the Chamber address the issue of restrictions on emigration to Honolulu, which was seconded and adopted accordingly.

During the 1895 coolies strike sparked by a proposal to register coolie houses, Ho Tung, a prominent Chinese member, was invited to the Chamber General Meeting chaired by J J Keswick, as a representative of the Chinese merchant community to assure the Chamber, amidst heated debate, that "the leading Chinese have no influence, directly or indirectly, over the strikers."

The first Chinese chairman of the Chamber was Jack Tang of South Sea Textile Manufacturing Co Ltd. Born in 1927, he was elected chairman of the Chamber in 1984, after serving as vice-chairman for two years.

At the time when Jack Tang was chairman, out of the 20 General Committee members, nine were Chinese: Stephen Cheong, Lydia Dunn, Daniel Koo, S H Sung, H C Tang, Dennis Ting, C H Tung and Allen Lee, who became the second Chinese national to chair the Chamber in 1988.

Today, the Chamber is as a business organisation what Hong Kong is as a city: international, with Chinese characteristics. B