A
7
kim for information as
information as to the truth
of certain statements in the "China Mail", a local publication._
I enclose the article referred to in closure 1.
by Sir Rutherford Alcock
I should have thought that
it bears
140
the face evidence of gross exaggerations, as for example the statement that
20,000 Annamites
had been carried off by piratical Lorchas in two years! but whether such things did or did not happen, it is quite clear from the evidence transmitted by me to Sir R. Alcock that there is no truth whatever in the portions of the paragraph which refer to this
Colony or that hundreds of Annamite women, kidnapped and purchased, are constantly shipped from Hong Kong in the Pacific Mail Steamers.
I should scarcely have expected Sir Rutherford Alcock to give such special and prominent notice to such unlikely statements,
but as he has done so, I have
had great pleasure in affording him all the information in my power; and as it also seems desirable to place your Lordship
early in possession of the same
I cannot do so more
effectually than by transmitting copy of the