July 16, 1896.J
It is impossible that Hongkong can have been otherwise than well governed if it has risen to the prosperous condition which the petitioners claim for it, and that it has reached that pitch of prosperity under the "Crown colony system "is indisputable.
I concur generally in the criticisms of Mr. Stewart Lockhart. I believe that Chinese, who are indifferently represented, and the Portuguese, who are not represented at all, if a plebiscité could be taken, would be in favour of a pure autocracy; the Americans need not be counted, and the "Britishers," with the ex- ception of a few unquiet spirits," would be satisfied to let matters remain as they are. That they are capable of improvement neverthe- | loss, so far as municipal" questions are concerned, I admit. During twenty years, however, of Colonial Government, I have not yet been fortunate enough to come in con- tact with a mayor and council, excepting that perhaps of the comparatively small town of San Fernando in Trinidad, which was capable of dealing with, and had sufficient time to deal with, purely local affairs, and even in that solitary case the municipal body was generally in financial difficulties.
I do not think that in Hongkong a sufficient number of gentlemeu of independent means and spirit and with sufficient leisure could be found to form a capable and energetic Municipal Coun- cil.
**
Personally I should not object to a slight ad dition to the Unofficial side of the Legislative Council in Hongkong, though I cannot admit the justice or truth of the petitioners' ples, neither should I-object to the appointment to the Executive Council of an Unofficial Member whose long residence and local knowledge would doubtless be of great assistance to the Executive- in the preparation of measures to be submitted to the Legislative Council. Practically such assistance could always be obtained if the status- quo were maintained, and I'may state that I in- variably consult the Unofficial Members before- bringing into Council measures of purely local interest.
If your Lordship should desire to make or recommend any concession to the petitioners, I would advise the appointment of an Unofficial Member with a seat in both, Councils.
I am aware that there are serious objections. to such a step, and that those objections have been pointed out by several of your Lordship's predecessors.
It must not be forgotten that the despatches containing those objections were addressed to Governors of colonies where Houses of As- sembly were in existence.
The difficulties in Barbadoes have been set at rest by the appointment of the Executive Committee which was established during my tenure of office there. In the Bahamas Un
still seated at the
official Members are Executive Council table."
If your Lordship should desire to make any such concession in the case of Hongkong, it would undoubtedly be a very popular, and I do not think an altogether infpolitic concession.
If this concession were accompanied by an acquiescence in my suggestion that until the present financial crisis is at an end the extra £20,000 for Military Contribution might, from the 1st January, 1894, be paid in dollars at the rate in force when it was levied, I do not think that in future your Lordship's department would be troubled by any such petitions as the one I now have the honour to forward for your consideration.
I annex for your Lordship's information a "leader" from the North China Herald of the 25th May on the "Petition of the Hongkong Ratepayers," which appears to be a very tem- perate and sensible criticism of the contents of that document.-I have the honour to be, my Lord, your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant,
WILLIAM Robinson. P.S. The letters from the Honourables J. J. Keswick and E. R. Belilios were received by me after I had drafted, this despatch.
W. R.
His Lordship the Marquess of Ripon, Her Ma. jesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, &c., &c., &c., Downing Street, London.
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CHINA ÖVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
LORD-RIPON TO THE GOVERNOR.
Downing Street, 23rd Angust, 1894. Sir,—I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 133 of the 5th of June last enclosing a pétition addressed to the House of Commons by various residents at Hongkong praying for an amendment of the constitution of the colony.
2.-This petition was forwarded to you by Mr: Whitehead, Member of the Legislative Council, and though, among his colleagues in the Council, Mr. Keswick and Mr. Belilios have refused to sign it, it bears the signatures of Mr. Chater and Dr. Ho Kai, both Members of the Council, of Mr. Jackson, Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bauk, and of other leading residents. I am therefore bound to assume that it is the matured conviction of at least a considerable proportion of the most influential members of the community that con. stitutional changes are desirable at Hongkong and that for the present Crown colony system should be substituted some measure of self- government. It is my duty to examine the arguments which have been brought forward, with care and attention; and I should be want ing in courtesy if I did not give a full answer to a petition, which is far reaching in its scope, and which has been strongly supported.
3.-The petitioners have addressed themselves to the House of Commons, as they have of course every right to do. From this it is natural to infer that they consider that they have grounds for discontent, which the Secretary of State is unwilling or unable to remove, and that they wish to emphasise in a suitable and reason- able manner the objections which they feel to the existing system.
4.-They ask that, subject to Imperial checks and safeguards, they may be granted-
(a) The free election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council of the colony."
(c)
(b) "A majority in the Council of such
- elected representatives."
Perfect freedom of debate for the Official Members with power to vote according to their conscientious con-
(d)
(e)
rictions.
Complete control in the Council over local expenditure."
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and that is that under the protection of the British Government Hongkong has become rather a Chinese than an European community and the fact that the Chinese have settled in the island in such large numbers has not only been one main element in its prosperity, but also the most practical and irrefutable evidence that the government, under which a politically. timid race such as the Chinese have shown every desire to live, must have at least possessed some measure of strength and of justice. How far Hongkong is a Chinese settlement, how fr the Chinese have paid the taxes and contributed to the trade, is touched upon in Mr. Lockhart's excellent memorandum which accompanies your despatch. He is clearly of opinion also that the tendency is for the trade of the colony to pass more and more into Chinese hands.
I cordially welcome what is said in the petition as to the skill and energy of the British merchants who have been or still are residents in Hongkong, and I can testify with pleasure to their public spirit. But the fact remains that the overwhelming mass of the community are Chinese, that they have thriven under a certain form of government and that in any scheme involving a change of administration their wishes should be consulted and their interests carefully watched and guarded.
7. The communities with which Hongkong is in the petition unfavourably contrasted, as regards its mode of government, arb Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius, and British Honduras. Hongkong, it seems to me, differs from all of these four dependencies of the British Crown alike in degree and in kind. It is smaller than Buy of them, it has no history or traditions, no record of old settlement or of political usages and constitutional rights. It has practically no indigenous population and, if I understand right, it has few life-long residedants, whether European or Chinese.
8.-It is perhaps a fair account of Hongkong and its fortunes as a British colony, to say that 50 years ago it was taken by and for the British Crown to serve Imperial purposes, and to safe. guard British trade in the Far East... ́
Holding a commanding, position at the mouth of the Canton river, endowed by nature with a fine harbour, which has been carefully kept as a free port, like the sister Crown colony of the Straits Settlements, strongly protected by an Imperial garrison and British ships of war, it has owed its prosperity to these advantages, as well as to the policy of the Imperial. Govern- ment, and to the fact that, being strongly guarded, it has attracted a large Chinese popa- lation who have found that under British rule their lives and their property have been safe.
The management of local affairs." (f) "A consultative voice in questions of
an Imperial character." They quote the colonies of Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius, and British Honduras as enjoying more liberal forms of government than that under which they are themselves living at
I should be inclined to judge not merely that Hongkong. They lay stress upon the com-
it has prospered as a Crown colony, but that it mercial energy which has raised the colony to
They has prospered in great messure because it has its present position of importance. claim "the common right of Englishmen to been a Crown colony. manage their local affairs, and control the ex- penditure of the colony where Imperial con- siderations are not involved.”
5.-Hongkong, when 53 years ago it became a British possession, was inhabited, I under. stand, by some 7,000 to 12,000 Chinese squatters and fishermen. According to the census of 1891 the population, in round numbers, amounted to 221,400, of whom 211,000, or more than nine- tenths, were Chinese. The Europeans and Americans numbered 8,500, and nationalities other than Europeans, Americans, and Chinese, 1,900. The census further analyses, as follows, the European and American population.
Out of the total of 8,500, the resident civil population amounted only to 4,200, the British military and naval forces numbered 2,900, and the remaining 1,400 represented. merchant seamen, police, and others.
Of the 4,200 individuals, who constituted the European and American civil population, 1,450 only were returned as British. Of this number not more than 800 were adult males, and there. fore presumably not more than 800 of them would be entitled to vote.
6.—I shall revert to these figures shortly in connection with the. question of popular re- presentation. Meanwhile it may be deduced from them that under the existing form of government the population of Hongkong has in half a century increared (say) twenty fold which is prima facie evidence, as you suggest in your despatch, that the colony has been well governed. But a further deduction has also to be made,
9.-It may, however, be contended that while the Crown colony system was suited to the infancy of the colony, it is now. time that a larger measure of self-government should be conceded.
I therefore propose very shortly to examine the separate points as to which the petitioners suggest that some concession should be måde.
10. They ask in the first place for the free election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council of the colony."
The words are somewhat ambiguous. They may mean that the voters should be of any nationality, European, American, Asiatic, or Chinese, provided that the representatives for whom they vote are of British nationality. The term British nationality again may be taken to mean either British subjects of all- nationalities.or simply persons who have been born or are the children of those who have been born in the United Kingdom. I assume, however, that what the words are intended to convey is that the English, Scotch, and Irish in Hongkong should elect representa tives of themselves to the Legislative Council. If this is the meaning then it is obvious from the figures which have been given above that considerably more than nine-tenths of the population will be entirely excluded from the franchise, that Europeans who are not of the category described and Americans will be excluded as well as Chinese, and that among those, British residents who alone will be, it is