Ior reply I beg leave to state that I have not up to the present day been in possession of the particulars of the case which has been preferred against me. I am not therefore in a position to answer the enquiries you make.
All I know at present amounts to this, that the Chief Justice has charged me in the Court with having made with deliberate insubordination a statement on the 21st October, which statement was afterwards reported in the China Mail newspaper. In a letter dated November 9th to my address, I have explained that I have been in the habit of making statements of a similar character, and have repeatedly promulgated my notions in precisely the same way. Snowden also, in my absence, and on the Bench, made a counter statement in Court referring to the very same matters respecting which I made the statement now formulated as an act of deliberate insubordination.
I was not, as I understand, aware of the practice when I wrote my letter of November 9th, but I find it has existed for years. I omitted to say, as I now do, that the Chief Justice has himself been one of the causes which led to my making such statement. I venture to submit the consideration of this fact to His Excellency the Governor.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) #4: Fred: Gibbons.