The Fan Iwai - (i.e. Foreign Devils - as all foreigners are called), is apt to burst forth into bloody excesses, and to make no distinction of rationality among the European's resident here.
With sundry combustible materials, any indiscretion of a Missionary, a dispute between Chinese and foreign sailors, and many other accidents, may at any time produce a provincial conflagration. It may not be altogether impertinent to remark that I have been informed that Confucius, who has been styled the "Aristotle of China", has laid down in one of his chief works, a principle exactly similar to the famous principle of the Greek Philosopher in his Politics, that "Revolutions (and Seditions) arise from great causes, but out of small incidents." (Πόλις οὐ περὶ μικρῶν, ἀλλ' ἐκ μικρῶν αἰτία στάσεων ἐστίν - or in translation not required here as per guideline).
In the event of the outbreak of hostilities, it will, of course, be the duty of the Government of Hongkong to maintain (as I said in a former Dispatch) a strict neutrality. It will also be the duty of the Admiral Commanding Her Majesty's Naval Forces in this station, to adopt the most efficient measures in his power for the protection of British Subjects residing at the Treaty Ports, and elsewhere in China.
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In the Event ... (content is cut off, no further text is given to continue)
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