not clamp this bustl
foshic thing
en proper
Gazelle
Ve dall Mall calls
Λ
for Lact Rentaly Cotem its age
And werchfulness of slaken afte te mandl
парой
And his oppopove
dechips.
Dath 4501
Outly But home 97
31
E.a.
7/0-82
C O.
13141
REC?
(REG: 26 JUL 32,
PALL MALL GAZETTE.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 26, 1882.
It is to be hoped that the Colonial Office will scrutinize carefully the doings of the officers who are administering the government of Hong Kong during Governor Sir Pope Hennessy's temporary absence. The policy of fair play to the preponderating Chinese population of the island which had been steadily pursued, in the face of much local opposition, for five years was followed by its natural result. Native timidity and suspicion were gradually replaced by confidence in our administration; Chinese capital was freely invested in land and various industrial enterprises in the colony, and the Chinese had commenced to settle permanently on the island. Shortly before the Governor's departure, Mr. Ng-Choy, the only Chinese member of the Legislative Council, prophesied that any reversal of his policy, or any retrograde step, would inevitably be followed by the distrust of the Chinese and the withdrawal of their capital. Unfortunately this warning was unheeded. The Chinese became alarmed at one or two apparently unfriendly acts of the administrator as soon as the Governor had left. The consequence was a steady outflow of Chinese, with their money, which has now reached such a pitch that on June 10, only three short months after the Governor's strong hand was removed from the helm, a public meeting of the colonists was called "for the purpose of discussing the reasons which have led to the withdrawal of native capital from the colony." Confidence is a plant of slow growth, especially in the sensitive and suspicious minds of Asiatics, and, unless Lord Kimberley interferes, the good effects of the work of the past five years will be effaced from the minds of the native population, which, after all, forms the backbone of the prosperity of the colony and of our whole trade with China,
161
}