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rally round the local representative of the Celestial Empire, both he and they are subject to the laws of the Colony, which we can safely rely upon as being sufficient to meet any possible attempt at unlawful combination amongst the native section of the community."
A Chinese consul resident in Hongkong could be very useful to the Hongkong Government. He could be a means to preserve law and order, for through his office the Hongkong authorities could avoid delay in communication with their Chinese counterparts in Canton about problems affecting the two parties.
The process of extradition should become easier. Direct relations would bypass complicated procedures. Such evils as the gambling dens at Kowloon City and Shamshuipo on Chinese soil just beyond the Kowloon boundary could at once be brought to the attention of the Viceroy “in a more effectual manner than by the circumlocutory methods to which red-tape official elements are so firmly attached."
The consul would be able to check on the criminal element who fled from Chinese jurisdiction to Hongkong and then used it as a base for their operations. Thus the resident criminal class would be decreased.
A frequent object of scorn for the editor of the Telegraph was Hongkong officialdom. The consul question provided him an opportunity to express it.
The editor believed that the presence of a Chinese official in Hongkong would have a salutary effect, for "it cannot fail to subject the shortcomings of our official element to the scrutiny of a class specially practised in the arts of discrimination, and, for that matter, dissimulation.”
In the editor's opinion the manner in which the Hongkong Government was being administered created a bad impression upon the Chinese residents: “It is lamentable to ponder over what any intelligent Chinese must think of the vaunted administrative capabilities of British colonies, when he comes to study the intelli-
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