24355
the
whether a foreign vessel anchored on that side of the harbor is amenable to the
laws of this Colony.
5. And now, Sir, in
concluding this Report I hope
I am not
going beyond my duty in making some remarks on the political position of Hongkong, and the erroneous notions concerning it that are sedulously presented to the public at home.
4. In an article in
the Times Newspaper (17 December, 1838) are to be found misrepresentations which the
most ordinary local knowledge is sufficient to correct.
7. We are told that
Hongkong feels itself humiliated " and displaced by the opening
of the ports of China", and that "all the success, whether of diplomacy which is so valuable to the rest of the world and so important to the
great interests
of humanity is rather carped at than celebrated here". It is
stated that the cause
is to be traced to the "natural
tendency of the Hongkong merchants
towards their own interests."
8. Now this proposition