DIC
160
Quarantine at Hong Kong last March; and the representations made in that note it is not surprising that Your Lordship should ask me to report on the subject:
Q. The Spanish Minister therein represents the Queen of Spain's Government as being fully acquainted with the communications which had passed here on that subject. It therefore appears to me the more surprising that, notwithstanding the length of time which inevitably elapses before a reference can be made to this Government on any point left unexplained or unnoticed in such cases, the Minister should have contented himself with transmitting merely the communications addressed to this Government by the Spanish Consul here - whilst he kept back the replies and explanations of the authorities here.
3. I can now do little more than supply that omission, and the case appears to me so clear that if Your Lordship had been placed in possession of those documents earlier, I believe no further reference to myself would have been thought necessary.
14. The Circassian arrived here at 5 P.M. on the 28th last March, and on the following day the Harbor Master in a letter addressed to the Colonial Secretary informed them that a