However, and it is impossible to foresee claims, which real or false, may be hereafter founded on that fact,
many
it is understood that
for advantage
any benefit.
be obtained entirely.
It is likewise apparent that
back here and at the Straits Settlements.
new claims will be founded,
cause
must in the
course of time spring up, to be used in
all probability
British
as a means of soliciting protection under existing Treaties
for the most disreputable characters. I had long hesitated to meddle with the subject, but I feel so strongly the
embarrassment which
may hereafter be
created by allowing such claims to accrue, that I think it
my duty to draw Your Lordships' attention specially to the subject, now that it has gained so much publicity through Sir Rutherford Alcock's Circular despatch.
There is however another point of view in which the Notification may
be
regarded, and that is its deterrent effect on respectable Chinese having property in China,
who
may
be unwilling
to reside here from
apprehension of their descendants being
hereafter deprived of their "status" as subjects of
The
A result
of the Chinese Emperor. A result which, I say,
would
be viewed
with extreme aversion here,
as is the
case
in the
distant Colony of Singapore. I understand that the publication of Sir Rutherford Alcock's Circular dispatch has already