369
previously consulting the Government at home.
Lord Aberdeen would therefore recommend that the Governor of Hong Kong should be instructed in the sense above indicated; and that he should, at the same time, be ordered to take a fitting opportunity of making known the tenour of his Instructions to the Portuguese Authorities at Macao:
Jam, Sir,
"Your most obedient humble Servant
Alleddingben.
Copy
Kayhand,
Ja 17 Hon
"Actors Commons . Sept. 9/405.
RECEIVED
NOV 8 1843
"I am honored with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Addington's Letter of the 4th instant, stating that the Secretary of State for the Colonial Office having requested you to be informed whether there are any engagements subsisting between England & Portugal which would bind the former country to interpose in the event of a capture between the Chinese foot and the Portuguese Authorities at Macao, Your Lordship applied to the President of the Board of Control for any information which the Archives of the East India Company could afford in illustration of the tenure by which Portugal holds the settlement of Macao.
Mr. Addington encloses the answer of the India Board, and with it a Memorandum which has been drawn up in the Foreign Office as to the Treaty obligations between England and Portugal, therein referred to, and also three works.
Mr. Addington is pleased to request that I would consider their matter, and report to your Lordships my opinion as to the extent to which it is incumbent on this country to defend the settlement of Macao. In obedience to your Lordship's commands I have
The Earl of Aberdeen. K.J.