10
369
owm Mandarins.
12. Your Lordship has to remember that whilst all the population here is in the immediate vicinity of the Mainland, - great majority of the influential native residents property and have children and other near relatives residing there. The instances are numerous of Hong Kong residents being compelled to pay from time to time large squeezes and exactions to the Authorities at Canton, because a refusal to do so would lead to the seizure of their property in China, and to the imprisonment and even torture of their immediate relatives. In the last War with China an order from Canton recalled in 24 hours almost all the Chinese and the Servants in this place within frame.
13. Of Course the Govent's had to clean their boots and cook their dinners themselves. Of Course the further a Colony might be from China the less easy would be the espionage and influence which can be so directly and promptly brought to bear on residents of an Island almost touching Chinese soil. Thus at Singapore there would be less danger and inconvenience of increasing, by the appointment of a recognised Government Official as Consul, the influence of the Cantonese or other Chinese Authorities there. At the Mauritius the risk would disappear altogether, or be unappreciable, but, with the full knowledge of the power exercised already by the Officials and the Guilds at Canton over residents here who 9/10th of whom regard the Vice Rey of the Two Kwang as their ultimate chief, they would be forced sooner or later to obey, it seems most unwise to permit an accredited Official, a spy and squeezer-general of the Chinese Government to take up his residence in our Colony.