His License is not transferable.
The monthly rent has, it is true, been received, but not from the real tenant So Yik-him, and not from Chii Kam-fong who has never been recognized by the Registrar General's Department as the tenant.
He states that So Yik-him died in China in August 1885, leaving him sole proprietor and owner of the business. Beyond his own word there is no proof of this and he contradicts it, I submit, in his letter dated the 10th November 1885 wherein he urges that he should be allowed to remain, that if he is turned out, So Yik-him's wife and children will be starved. In another way he asks to be allowed to again resume the business so that both families have something to support their life". He has never been anything but a partner in the License; he knew, as himself admits, that on the death of So Yik-him it would revert to Government.
When that contingency happened, instead of frankly informing Government thereof and applying for the License on such terms as would have been fair and just to both parties, he sought to obtain a license by alleging that his license had been lost, and by impersonating the original holder. Mr Stewart Lockhart is positive that he merely carried out his instructions, which were to receive the rent from Chii Kam-fong and made no promise to him as to his license or tenancy.
His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government may wish to address the Secretary of State again on this matter.
S. F. Edw. J. Ackroyd,
Acting Attorney General.