(Copy.) No. 22.
Sir,
Victoria, Hongkong,
21 March 1856.
In reference to your letter of the
21st instant, Mr. ... I
have the honour to state,
That I was not labouring under
any suspicion, that the "Levant" had not her regular papers. Sometime after the
vessel arrived from Southampton the crew
were discharged, and, when the master came to enter a fresh crew, he brought this ship's Register to the Office, merely that the damage might be taken from it and inserted in the new articles; being under a Foreign Flag and not
at the Port, he was the person in whose custody the papers might be placed,
Honble.
W. J. Mercer, Esqre.,
Colonial Secretary.