it will require patience, and perseverance before we obtain the same privileges from the Chinese, which they think they ought to receive from us without any reciprocity.
I am rather disposed to think the manager of the China Local Cotton Company (Woo On Amoi) has other objects in view than the interests of the Company which he professes, and which I do not believe to be quite in the interests of Hong Kong either.
I believe it is highly desirable that if they are permitted to come into Hong Kong to work, they should live and have their Office-Building here, so that we may have some control over them as they exercise at Shanghai.
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I think it is right that you should know exactly how the matter stands, because I believe that any arrangement that is made will have a very important bearing on our future trade with China. You will see that. I do not insist upon the company having the right to go to Canton if the Chinese come into Hong Kong, but I think, in our negotiations with them, we ought to get from the Chinese as much as we grant to them, as an evidence of the good feeling between them and us.
Fr. H. W. Chicheley Secretary