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inaccurate statements as to the alleged insanitary habits of the Hongkong Chinese and to the small-pox dens to be found in the Chinese quarter of Hongkong. [But I have more than once pointed out to Her Majesty's Government that somewhat misleading statements on this subject have been made by two of my own officials, Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon, and Mr. J. Price, the Surveyor General, and that it is therefore not surprising subordinate officers in Sydney should have made similar mistakes.
6. But it is particularly unfair to speak of an epidemic of small-pox as being possible in Hongkong, as in fact the Chinese of Hongkong (as I pointed out in the enclosure of my despatch No. 81 of the 6th June, 1881), at their own expense maintain the only real system of vaccination that exists in the Colony, and which, up to this, has kept the Colony so remarkably free from small-pox.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's Most Obedient
Humble Servant,