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CARL SMITH
In attacking the China Mail's comments on the delegation, the pen of the Telegraph's editor fairly burned. With enflamed rhetoric, he proclaimed: "We have seldom perused a greater farrago of contemptible drivel. . . . The impossibility of extracting blood from a stone has long been recognised, so, on the same principle, no one ever expects from a newspaper of the class of our evening contemporary anything approaching ordinary intelligence, or even common sense.
"The thing which serves as an article in the feeble organ of lower Wyndham Street is not merely devoid of ordinary intelligence, and altogether lacking in common sense; it is false in principle, inaccurate in statement, illogical in argument, ungrammatical in diction, sycophantic in tone and intention, and taken all in all, a crying disgrace to a so-called representative of public opinion which pretends to be impartial, honest and independent.
"We have no intention of trying to wean our evening print from its crooked ways, nor would it be worthwhile to preach doctrines of decency and of self-respect to the anonymous scribbler who apparently imagines he hits the foreign public taste while at the same time hoodwinking and conciliating the Chinese, by vulgar misrepresentation of matters which are within the ken of all, and spiteful and scurrilous abuse of Governor Hennessy. It would be a much easier task to endow a fool with intellect than to persuade him that he possessed either intellect, truth, or decency."
The journalist of that day could not expect tender treatment from his rival.
The editorials reflect that the distrust between the foreign and Chinese communities, the struggle to find some way to resolve tensions, the bitterness aroused by Governor Hennessy's policies were still boiling in the pot. To these there had been added a rift within the Chinese community. Ho A-mei was not averse to stirring the stew.