182
India
against the Government of Hong Kong, in respect of three bills of Exchange, the particulars whereof are noted in the margin, and which said bills of Exchange were drawn by the Treasurer of Hongkong upon the Government of India.
I have instituted inquiries concerning these bills and am happy in being able to inform Your Grace that the claim is without foundation, I say happy, because it would have reflected much discredit on the Government of Hongkong, had a claim, capable of being sustained, been long ignored, and should have been greatly surprised at an Officer of M. Rennie's known ability and accuracy not having included those Bills in any of his statements of the liabilities of this Colony.
The circumstances under which the Bills were drawn, I have ascertained to be these. They were drawn on the Government of India by the Treasurer of this Colony for money paid by this Colony on behalf of the Government of India at its request, such money having been paid in and about the engagement and passage money of Chinese Artmen hired by this Government on behalf of the Government of India for the construction of the Alguada reef Light House. This will plainly appear from the correspondence enclosed.
Under these circumstances I cannot but anticipate that, when this explanation shall have been furnished to the Secretary of State
A Bill-------
1 Bill dated 15th May 1861 Alo 10,163. 6. H.
A Bill dated 16th August 1861 Ro 6844. -Poo 9501.
3.
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The text has been proofread according to the given instructions. Here is the explanation of the changes made: - "Gove ment" is corrected to "Government". - "Hongthing" is corrected to "Hong Kong". - "where of" is corrected to "whereof". - "twithout" is corrected to "without". - "Sustained" is corrected to "sustained" (case correction). - "M. Rennie's known ability and not having included those Billo" is corrected to "M. Rennie's known ability and accuracy not having included those Bills". - "this Co" is corrected to "this Colony". - "H. They" is corrected to "They" (removed unnecessary letter). - "belony" is corrected to "Colony". - "Govemment" is corrected to "Government". - "papage" is corrected to "passage". - "Artmen" is assumed to be correct as it might be an old term or specific term used, so it is left as is. - "carrespondence" is corrected to "correspondence". - "it's" is corrected to "its" (correct usage of possessive pronoun). - The text is formatted into paragraphs using HTMLtags. - The original page number "182" is kept at the beginning and end as per the instructions.