72
Authorities the greater is the chance of a favourable solution.
44.
I need not go over the ground pre-occupied by Mr Mercer in reference to the effect which the extension of Trade with China will have upon the Colony of Hong Kong. I believe that extension will contribute to its prosperity as a Commercial depôt and to its value as a territorial possession. Never had a Colony to contend against a greater amount of prejudice, ignorance, and misrepresentation. If having "a bad name" could have ruined it, its perdition was inevitable, but Hong Kong can withstand the testimony of fact and figures, - facts in figures I might say! Hongkong is the seat and the centre, the directing and controlling place round which the vast commerce of the China Seas is gathered. Here are the seats of great Mercantile Houses - the Merchant princes of the East - from hence the instructions emanate which govern the proceedings at all the Ports in China - Here are the principal Banking establishments- here may be said to be the intelligence and the concentrated wealth of the largest Commercial establishments in the oriental world.
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of Hongkong be but a barren ...