Enclosure L
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 14th January 1884
RECEIVED
20 FEB R4
3366
The Committee of this Chamber has been greatly concerned to read the announcement, made by Reuters Telegraphic Agency, that the French Press in Paris is urging the French Government to occupy the Island of Kulangsu, as a material guarantee for the satisfaction of a demand for payment of an indemnity, which it is suggested should be made upon the Chinese Government.
The Committee desires to draw the attention of Your Excellency to clauses 3 and 4 in the Convention concluded between Sir John Davis, Her Majesty's Plenipotentiary, and the Chinese Government at Bocca Tigris in April 1846, which provide as follows:-
3. "It is stipulated on the part of His Majesty the Emperor of China that on the evacuation of Chusan by Her Britannic Majesty's forces the said Island shall never be ceded to any other foreign power."
4. "Her Britannic Majesty covenants upon her part, in case of the attack of an invader, to protect Chusan and its dependencies, and to restore it to the possession of China, as of old; but as this stipulation proceeds from the friendly alliance...
His Excellency
Sir George Ferquharon Bowen, G.C.M.G.
Governor of Hongkong and its Dependencies.