Expression, and by requiring from the
therese settlers in Hong Kong
a renunciation
of their Allegiance to the Emperor of
China, and a recognition of
the absolute
supremacy of England, as the price
of
their
being
allowed to remain
on the Island, such a
case
of hiring",
might not be made out as to
entitle the British Authorities to
require that
they
should be allowed
to follow their own
"convenience
and inclination"; and at all events
to divest the Chinese Government of any pretension or claim to interfere in their behalf.
Lord
157
Lord Aberdeen would be disposed,
with Lord Stanley's
Stanley's concurrence,
to direct
Sir Henry Pottinger to meet the Embarrassment
occasioned
by
the Chinese claim in this
manner.
There is still another mode
of
obviating the difficulty, and which
might be pressed
on the Chinese
authorities with reference to their
letter
of the 27th of September. The leading idea in that letter is, always
repugnant
to submit the Chinese to British law. But Lord Aberdeen believes
that the natives of
the territories
under
...