Slow is it that the head partner of Messrs Landeten & Co, who is at present absent, did not serve previous notice?
The whole matter looks suspicious in fact. As we are at a distant part of the ocean, we have no means of knowing what evidence was given in the manner the lawyers Messrs Caldwell and Kingsmill defended the case. As hitherto our Government steamers bound to your Port on public service, were indebted to the British officers for protection, I beg your Lordship when the case against the steamer "Pangwee" is brought before your Court for trial to speedily decide it impartially and to bring to light the fact that the debt left unpaid was contracted by the Untax Han Kai-Fai and Ny-Wang and is their private debt, and by no means a public one.
Ats hai Sin, Vice President of the Board of Revenue, attended by Un Tai Kwan, a clerk of the same Board, came to your Port for the purpose of superintending the affairs of the steamer. I have instructed these officers to lay before your Lordship this Communication setting forth the circumstances of the case and I beg your Lordship to distinguish the truth from the falsehood and to decide the case impartially and according to the various accounts set forth in my despatch, so that the steamer may be able to return early to her station after completion of repairs.
For your doing me this service, I will ever be under obligation to your Lordship. I have now obtained the facts in connection with the debt which was privately contracted by Un Tak Han Lai Kai-Fai and Ny-Wang, whom...