435
Board of Trade
LE
No. 20.
R. M. Martin, Esq., to Mr. Secretary Gladstone,
7 April 1846.
No. 21. Lord Lyttelton to R. M. Martin, Esq. 15 April 1846.
No. 22.
R. M. Martin, Esq. to Mr. Secretary Gladstone.
9 April 1846.
22 CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE RESIGNATION
I am to add, that although Mr. Gladstone is not aware of any cause for inquiry in Parliament into your statement, he must reserve his reply to your question whether opposition would be offered on the part of the Government to such inquiry, until he shall have been apprized in a more definite manner of the nature and proposed aim of it.
Sir,
No. 20.
I have, &c. (signed) Lyttelton.
COPY of a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq., to Mr. Secretary Gladstone.
Mansfield House, Iver, near Uxbridge,
7 April 1846.
THE City article of the "Times" of yesterday, contains the following remarks: -"Hong Kong has quite lost caste as a place for mercantile operations. Many of the merchants had already abandoned the island. Since the beginning of the present year, two firms have given up their establishments; two more of old standing had expressed their determination to quit the colony; and others were hesitating about following their example, or at most of leaving a clerk in possession to forward goods or letters."
I believe the foregoing to be a true statement; it is an ample confirmation of my "Report on Hong Kong," dated July 1844, which was transmitted by Governor Davis to the Colonial Office; and it is, I respectfully submit, in justification of my having come to England to bring this and other equally misunderstood and misrepresented portions of our affairs in China, under the immediate and serious consideration of Her Majesty's Government. Yet, for thus acting in accordance with what I deemed an urgent and responsible public duty, I am now subjected to severe punishment, and all inquiry into my conduct, or the means of self justification in public estimation, and which I have so earnestly solicited, is denied me.
I have, &c. (signed) R. M. Martin.
Copy of a LETTER from Lord Lyttelton to R. Montgomery Martin, Esq.
Sir,
Downing-street, 15 April 1846.
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Gladstone to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 7th instant, calling his attention to the "City Article" in the "Times" Newspaper of the 6th instant, on the subject of Hong Kong, which you consider to be a justification of your having returned to England to bring the state of the colony under the consideration of Her Majesty's Government. Mr. Gladstone desires me to observe in answer, that, whether the statement in the "Times" Newspaper be accurate or otherwise, he cannot acknowledge that it was the duty of a subordinate officer of the Government of Hong Kong to repair to this country without the consent, or rather after the dissent of the Governor, to lay those facts before Her Majesty's Government.
No. 22.
I have, &c. (signed) Lyttelton.
COPY a LETTER from R. Montgomery Martin, Esq. to Mr. Secretary Gladstone.
Sir,
Mansfield House, Iver, near Uxbridge, 8 April 1846.
I AM this day honoured with Lord Lyttelton's communication of 6th instant, wherein his Lordship states, that you are "not at present aware there is any question depending between Her Majesty's Government and myself, which could be made the subject of discussion at a private interview, or of any inquiry in or out of Parliament."
Pardon my saying, that I think you are still imperfectly informed of the causes of my conditional resignation of office, which was not tendered until I had vainly endeavoured for more than twelve months to check what I viewed as an utter waste of the public money to a serious extent, as testified in the accompanying correspondence; wherein, at page 17, it will be seen that on 19th June 1844, I recommended, in proof of my sincerity, the abolition of my own office, with the hope that the attention of Her Majesty's Government would thus be awakened to the true state of affairs at Hong Kong; and on 14th November 1844 (page 65), I even stated that I "could not conscientiously continue to receive my salary and remain silent when I perceived that a great error had been committed," which it was not too late to rectify; and (at page 72), that "any suffering or degradation would be preferable to witnessing the pursuance of an erroneous course of policy fraught with great injury to England, which may be averted by prompt, judicious and timely measures." Her Majesty's Government had incurred, and were still incurring a very large expenditure on Hong Kong without having had any detailed report on the place; I thought I should have neglected my duty, had I not endeavoured to remedy this defect. My "Report on Hong Kong," was therefore completed 24th July 1844, and forwarded by Governor Davis to the Colonial Office. I am ready to substantiate the truth of every statement contained in that report, which, however, from some motives was unheeded, as were also my urgent representations for a reduction of the public expenditure in China, although these views were forcibly sustained by Commissary-general Coffin, and Deputy Commissary-general Miller, in their reports to Mr. Trevelyan at the Treasury.
Understanding in July last, that it was in contemplation to expend a further sum of several million dollars on a barren useless rock, which the British merchants declared to Lord Stanley (13 August 1845), "was never actually required for the purposes of commerce," and which they are "now abandoning" (Times, 6 April 1846), I sought six months' leave of absence, offering to resign all salary, to retain my securities to the Crown, to defray my expenses overland to England, and to resign my commission should my conduct be disapproved of at home (see page 114). The leave thus sought was refused, as Governor Davis was aware of my determination to carry out what I thought was correct, and was as I believe desirous of conferring my appointment on his relative Mr. Mercer. Conceiving that a servant of the Crown is a steward of the public interests, that he is bound by his oath and by Christian morality to incur any sacrifice rather than permit the continuance of what he considers to be seriously prejudicial to the national weal, and in the hope that Her Majesty's Government would ultimately appreciate my conduct, I was constrained to tender my conditional resignation, until I could bring the whole subject under the full and unbiassed consideration of Her Majesty's Government (see pages 111 to 118).
Previous to my departure from China, and likewise since my arrival in England, I explained the amendments and retrenchments which appeared requisite, and on 13th November last, I gave to the Chancellor of the Exchequer at his request, the details of a plan by which 250,000l. a year might be saved in China.
Lord Lyttelton informs me, that the tendered resignation of my office having been accepted, "I no longer stand in any official relation to Government, and that Her Majesty's Government do not deem it convenient to enter into any discussion with me on the questions of Chinese policy to which my several communications to them relate."
In other words, after devoting no inconsiderable portion of the most valuable period of my life to the service of the Crown with industry, honesty and zeal, as evinced in the accompanying reports, after incurring considerable expense in obtaining useful information of which Her Majesty's Government have derived the benefit, and while still engaged in preparing an elaborate commercial report on China for the Board of Trade; am informed, that I have forfeited my position in Her Majesty's service, while those who preferred their emoluments to the public good retain their offices in Hong Kong.
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I am
Printed Pamphlet.