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mentioning their names. They are Mr. HOPPIUS, Mr. FORBES and Mr. RUTTUNJEE.
I believe at the Meeting at which the division took place and the proposal to come to terms with the Government was rejected by a majority of one, my honourable friend was in the chair, Messrs. HOPPIUS, FORBES and RUTTUNJEE Voting against Messrs. RYRIE and SASSOON. Now, a good deal has been said about the City Hall Committee and the action of the Government. I think I had better read, for the information of the Council, a passage from Her Majesty's instructions, which Her Majesty was graciously pleased to address to me, and which, as the Council will at once see, governs, in spirit, every transaction of this kind,
"You are not to assent in Our name to any Bill whereby persons not of European birth or descent may be subjected or made liable to any disabilities or restrictions to which persons of European birth or descent are not also subjected or made liable."
Her Majesty declares that I am rendered incapable of giving my assent to any such bill. The Royal commission and Royal instructions give the Governor of a Crown Colony a good deal of power, no doubt, but for reasons which Her Majesty and the Queen's advisers thoroughly understand the advantages of, the Governor is precluded from giving his assent to any such bill. Now, the Royal instructions are the chief guide of the conduct of a Governor of a Colony, and in accordance with the spirit of that clause I see that Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL acted as a loyal Governor when he insisted upon that condition, and gave effect in that condition he imposed on the Committee to the clause of the instructions I have read. Is it to be said that Mr. HOPPIUS, and Mr. FORBES, and Mr. RUTTUNJEE are to teach the Governor of this Colony on this all-important question of the relations between persons of European birth and those not of European birth? That, indeed, these gentlemen are to upset the conditions framed by Governor MACDONNELL and instruct the present Governor how he is to conduct the Government with respect to the Queen's subjects? Perhaps Mr. HOPPIUS may say, "What do I care about Queen Victoria's instructions? The conduct of the Governor may be in accordance with the Royal instructions, but I am a German." And perhaps another gentleman, Mr. FORBES, may say, "What do I care about this? I am not bound by the spirit of Her Majesty's instructions. They are not the instructions of the President of the United States."
Mr. RYRIE.
A letter was written by the Acting Colonial Secretary to the City Hall Committee, in which he said: "The Governor desires me to say he is authorised by the Secretary of State to suggest the free opening of the Museum for a period of six months. In doing so I am to express the hope of His Excellency that the Committee will see its way to the adoption of the suggestion, and so remove all cause of difference between themselves and the Trustee." The answer is: "The new regulations were so fully considered, and the majority were so clearly in favour of them, that the Committee are unable to see that any useful end could be served by trying the experiment suggested."
So it comes to this, that these gentlemen, the majority of whom are not British subjects, are, forsooth, to exclude the Queen's Chinese subjects from the City Hall, for which land worth $70,000, or more, was granted by the Crown to all the inhabitants—that these gentlemen are to set aside the trusts of that deed, the conditions of Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL, the resolution that was passed by the present Governor in Council, and the suggestion of the Secretary of State. Of course, they can't do so. However powerful these gentlemen may be, they are not strong enough to do that. The spirit of the Queen's instructions carried out. The conditions imposed by Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL in respect of this ground will be fulfilled, and the law will be strictly enforced with respect to the payment of any money, if any money again has to be paid to the Trustee.
Gentlemen, I observe it was said also, at a place where I was not present, at a meeting at the City Hall, that there was some agreement come to by the Governor with regard to these new rules, and that from that agreement the Governor had deviated. I don't know that it was said very distinctly, but whether said distinctly or not, it was a mistake. In 1879, my attention was called to the matter, and a letter was written to the City Hall Committee. When they refused to accede to the wish of the Governor of the Colony, I received a letter. It is not marked private, and I will quote a passage from it. It is from a member of this Council, His Honour the Chief Justice. He says: "Could you not let the vote for the year be passed conditionally that the rules meet your approval, and thus give time for arrangement?" That letter of Sir JOHN SMALE's was written to me on 27th October, 1879. To that I at once agreed, namely, that the vote, which had been struck out of the Estimates for 1880, should be put back again under the condition that the Committee proceed to revise their notice and that the rules were to meet my approval.
Well, the Committee met. The gentlemen who were not British subjects managed—again by a small majority—to exclude a number of British subjects from the Museum. I intimated at once that the rules did not meet my approval; nevertheless, I kept the vote on the Estimates for 1880, and directions were given to the Colonial Treasurer to pay the money in accordance with Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL's minutes and in accordance with the counsel of my law adviser, that is, to the trustee. Therefore, I did my duty.
The question now arises, whether we are to pay the ratepayers' money to these gentlemen who have no legal position whatever as far as the City Hall is concerned, who are violating every engagement they have made to the Government, but above all, who are endeavouring at this time, in the nineteenth century, to retain in Hongkong the last little remnant of intolerance in the shape of their notice. There is no other notice in this Colony in which a distinction is made between Chinese and Europeans except that notice in the City Hall Museum; and, forsooth, it is to be kept up there, and the public money to be paid to gentlemen who, by a narrow majority, still retain that foolish and intolerant notice. I need not say it cannot be done.
I am not surprised that my honourable friend, when he made his interesting statement as to what was omitted in the Estimates for 1881, avoided all reference to this subject in my presence. I have now given all the facts of the case. The papers from which I quoted are upon the table. My honourable friend had an opportunity long since of perusing them. He knew the case thoroughly. But for the first time, now, the essential facts for the right understanding of the question have been laid before the public.
Honourable W. KESWICK—Your Excellency, I am not prepared, not having expected this attack, nor would I think it desirable, to occupy the time of the Council, to go through in detail all that you have said, but as you have declared that that report does not contain all the facts, so do I, as emphatically as words can express it, declare my conviction that the statements you have made are not borne out by facts, that these papers that are put on the table as representing what was the understanding between Governor Sir RICHARD MCDONNELL and the trustees or those who got up the City Hall, do not bear out the construction you put upon them, and that the conditions have not been violated.
There is no distinction in the way of the exclusion of Chinese from the City Hall; they are as free to visit the Museum within certain hours as any other nationality. The English are excluded during a certain time, and for reasons clear and well-defined, and the rules are supported by those whose opinion we have good reason to respect, and these rules are said to be in accordance with the requirements of the community, both Chinese and Europeans.
As regards the title-deed of the property, it is a pure and simple ordinary title-deed such as is granted in similar ordinary cases. It contains no more conditions necessary for the opening of the Museum and the terms on which it should be kept open than does any book of ancient Sanscrit.
And I would state with regard to these papers, when before the Associated Committee—they were before that Committee—that the Committee duly considered and attached to them such weight as they thought the minutes referred to by Your Excellency deserved. They gave them due weight, and the result was an alteration in the rules such as no sensible practical man can for a moment doubt is in accordance with the best means of making that institution useful.
There is no exclusion of the Chinese in the sense of exclusion. There is a regulation for making the institution useful. As to the Library, there is no inducement for the Chinese to go there.
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