153
No.
89.
HONGKONG.
DESPATCHES RESPECTING THE FRENCH AND GERMAN MAIL STEAMERS.
Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Governor.
No. 280.
MY LORD,
Enslosure 1. C.S.O. 2075/88.
Enclosures 2 and 3.
C.S.O. 2075/88.
(1.)
Governor of Hongkong to Secretary of State.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 8th August, 1888.
I have the honour, at the request of the Hongkong General Chamber of Com- merce, to forward a Petition addressed to Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, with reference to the Ordinances of the Colony which grant to the French and German Mail Steamers the status and privileges of men-of-war.
2. I forward also two letters from the Chamber in connexion therewith.
3. I postpone, for the present, the comments which I intend to make upon the Petition, inasmuch as their nature will greatly depend on the result of a cor- respondence, which is now going on, with the Consul for France in this Colony on the subject of the enforcement of process issuing from the Local Courts.
I have, &c.,
(Signed,)
The Right Honourable
The Lord KNUTSFORD, G.C.M.G.
G. WILLIAM DES VŒUX.
To
HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY
THE QUEEN.
Enclosure 1.
MOST HUMBLY AND RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH,
The Humble Petition of the Bankers, Merchants, Traders and others constituting the Chamber of Commerce of Your Majesty's Colony of Hongkong.
1. That since the year 1880, there has been annually passed by the Legislative Council of Hongkong, an Ordinance conferring upon the steamers of the Com- pagnie des Messageries Maritimes, employed by the French Post Office in carrying mails to and from this Colony, all the rights, privileges and immunities of vessels of
war.
2. That in 1886 and 1887 similar Ordinances, conferring like privileges and immunities on the steamers of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, subsidized by the Imperial Government of Germany for the conveyance of mails, were passed by the said Legislative Council.
3. That these ordinances have been passed year after year in spite of the repre- sentations and remonstrances of this Chamber, each year renewed, and against the protests and objections of the unofficial members of the said Legislative Council, and wholly by the authority of Your Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies and by the votes of the official members of Council.