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Your Lordship will have long since seen from my despatch N.99 of the 21st of June, 1881, I was able to send the following telegram to the Government of New South Wales on the 20th of June :-
"Health Officer reports Hongkong free from any epidemic of infectious or contagious disease and that out of the three thousand five hundred and eighty eight Chinese he examined this month as emigrants none was suffering from small-pox. The Governor therefore hopes that Quarantine will not be enforced against Hongkong."
The following extract from an article in the Sydney Morning Herald of the 26th of July, 1881, shows that the truth as to the immunity of the Hongkong Chinese from Small-pox has been made known in New South Wales:-
"We must, in all fairness, take into account the large number of Chinamen who have been landed at Port Darwin and Rocktown, without, so far as has been recorded a single case of small-pox. Up to the present time Hongkong has not shown itself a more dangerous port than London. We are justified in taking every reasonable precaution; but we are not justified in reproaching the Hongkong Government undeservedly. No doubt other Australian newspapers have given circulation to...