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information of His Excellency, which I have hastened towards bringing this important subject to the notice of the Acting Vice Roy Shi-lin, as also sent his reply to my representation.
Any delay which may appear to have accrued in my acknowledgment of your despatch will, I trust, be satisfactorily explained by the fact that, before addressing the Acting Vice Roy in writing, I sought a personal interview to impress upon His Excellency the absolute necessity of immediate measures towards checking the prevailing anarchy upon the Coasts of this Province; on which occasion I rendered to him verbally the tenor of the despatch I had received from you.
The Acting Vice Roy requested me to furnish him with a translation of the document in writing, and this I subsequently transmitted. I now enclose a translation of the reply I have received.
His Excellency Sir R. G. MacDonnell will doubtless notice that the undertakings in which the Acting Vice Roy pledges himself are somewhat faint and vague; whilst, for my own part, I am not sanguine as to the probability of much active reform under the present condition of the Chinese Civil Administration.
The Acting Vice Roy is perfectly correct in stating that an elaborate code of Ordinances for the regulation of Chinese Shipping is in existence, but that it has fallen into complete desuetude is only an additional proof of...