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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH MARCH, 1882.
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GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.-No. 89.
CHINESE EMIGRATION FROM HONGKONG TO AUSTRALIA.
The following Despatches are published for general information.
By His Excellency's Command,
M. S. TONNOCHY, Acting Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 4th March, 1882.
HONGKONG.
THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY TO GOVERNOR SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
DOWNING STREET,
No. 17.
21st January, 1882.
SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 163 of the 22nd of November last, enclosing a letter addressed to me by the Chairman of the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce respecting the alleged ill-treatment in Sydney of certain Chinese passengers from Hongkong by the steam ship Ocean in June and July of last year.
I transmit herewith for your information copy of a despatch on this subject which I have addressed to the Governor of New South Wales.
Governor SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.,
&c.,
I have, &c.,
(Signed)
KIMBERLEY.
&c.,
&c.
Copy.
NEW SOUTH WALES. No. 6.
THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY TO GOVERNOR LORD A. LOFTUS.
DOWNING STREET,
19th January, 1882.
MY LORD, I have received a despatch from the Governor of Hongkong, forwarding a letter addressed to me by the Chairman of the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce, with other papers, copies of which are enclosed, respecting the alleged ill-treatment in Sydney, during June and July of last year, of certain Chinese passengers from Hongkong by the steam ship Ocean.
2. Sir J. POPE HENNESSY observes that without at all questioning the accuracy of the statements made in the various enclosures of Mr. RYRIE's letter, which would seem to indicate a determination on the part of some of the subordinate officials in Sydney to treat the Chinese passengers from Hongkong with needless severity, in the matter of Quarantine regulations, he is bound to admit that Sir HENRY PARKES and the members of the New South Wales Government repudiated the harsh proceedings of the subordinate officials of the Quarantine Department.
3. He further states that the harsh proceedings in question appear to have commenced on the 26th of June, and to have had their origin in an unfounded report that small-pox was raging in Hongkong and had been introduced into Sydney by Chinese passengers. But that on learning, on the 17th of June, that Hongkong had been proclaimed, at Sydney to be an infected place, vessels from which should be placed in quarantine for small-pox, he called for a report from the Health officer, and was able to send the following telegram to the Government of New South Wales on the 20th of June.
"Health officer reports Hongkong free from any epidemic of infectious or contagious disease and "that out of the three thousand five hundred and eighty eight Chinese he examined this month as Emigrants none were suffering from small-pox. The Governor therefore hopes that quarantine will "not be enforced against Hongkong."
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4. Sir J. POPE HENNESSY quotes the following extract from an Article in the Sydney Morning Herald, of the 26th of July 1881, as showing that the truth as to the immunity of the Hongkong Chinese from small-pox was made known in New South Wales:-
"We must, in all fairness, take into account the large number of Chinamen who have been landed "at Port Darwin and Cooktown, without so far as has been recorded a single case of small-pox. Up "to the present time Hongkong has not shown itself a more dangerous port than London. We are "justified in taking every reasonable precaution, but we are not justified in reproaching the Hongkong "Government undeservedly.'