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very degree counterbalance the injurious policy which has recently been aired by the Chinese authorities towards this Colony.
5. His Excellency is therefore very desirous that the suggestion I made by Mr Consul Robertson should not be allowed to drop without the absolute necessity for so doing being made clearly apparent. Sir Richard MacDonnell does not consider Her Majesty's Government likely to be deterred from seeking to accomplish a measure so important to the general interests of Commerce merely because "it might make Hongkong 'great emporium of the South'" as apprehended by Sir Rutherford Alcock.
6. If placing Hongkong on equality with the Treaty Ports in a few particulars calculated to promote equally the facilities offered to Chinese and to Foreigners in the conduct of their business should eventually increase the prosperity of this Colony, His Excellency presumes that such result would merely prove the superior advantages possessed by this Port over any other in the South.