Your Lordships. It would be open to the formation of a more broad conclusion that the inquiries made could not be answered satisfactorily.
I may add that even if my replies No. 8 & mine with inclosure, No. 9A (the Memorandum by F. F. Myers) were added, the exclusion of the subsequent papers would leave the case, as first published, unsupported by the very important facts disclosed in Dou.
And that no publication at a future time of these facts (distinguished from the previous Correspondence in the partial documents) can alter the Conclusion which we have already come to by the perusal of the imperfect Series. For on a question such as this is, which involves permanent and vital interest, an imperfect statement of facts is more likely to be prejudicial, as the delay tends to fully develop all the facts as a continuous whole.
I have the honor to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient Servant,
John Smale,
Chief Justice of Hong Kong.
DRAFT.
Sir J. Smale,
15 June 1881.
MINUTE.
Sir J. Smale & August,
De Robeck,
Mr. Wingfield,
Mr. Bramston,
Mr. Meade,
Mr. Herbert,
Mr. Grant Duff,
Lord Kimberley.
3 August.
In reply to your letter of the 1st inst., I am directed by the Earl of Kimberley to inform you that the presentation to Parliament of the papers relating to Kidnapping and Coolie and domestic Slavery in Hong Kong will be delayed for the present.