8. No attempt, as I have before remarked, has been made either by the Agent of this Company, or by the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce to make any personal representation to me, or to lay the question before me in a proper or practical or serious spirit; no information was tendered as to the condition of the vessel, whether she had sailpower, nor were any necessary partieniars vouchsafed, though it must have been clear to these gentlemen had they considered the question at all, that assuming the vessel to have broken down, and not to have foundered, she could not have beeu in the N. E. Monsoon on the coast of Luzon three weeks after having passed Manila, and that even had she drifted down the course of the monsoon she would be more likely heard of in the direction of Singapore than in that locality after such a lapse of time.
9. I have with regret now to comment on the remarks made by the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce on my action in the case of the steamer Namehow as drawing a parallel between the manner in which the Naval Commander-in-Chief's "promptings of humanity" are so readily displayed in the case of a native owned vessel, and withheld from an unfor- tunate vessel belonging to a British "Company."
10. Such observations might pass as an emanation of anonymous scur- rility, but as coming from a Committee of gentlemen "claiming" to give expression to the views of the important mercantile community of Hongkong are to say the least unusual.
11. As the facts of the case have been published there can be uo justi- fication for the appearance of such remarks as these in an official despatch from a responsible corporation.
12. I enclose the correspondence which speaks for itself. There was a case in which the master of a steamer reported that on the previous day he had every reason to believe that a great catastrophe had happened to another steamer, name unknown, in this neighbourhood.
The weather was somewhat thick and it was blowing hard and the vessel the Meifoo proceeded on her course after a delay in my opinion alto- gether insufficient for the purpose of even the most perfunctory search, the master contenting himself with stating what be believed had taken place to the Harbour Master on arrival at Hongkong.
18. The case being reported to me, I at once despatched H.M.S. Por- poise to examine the locality with the result already published.
14. In the face of these well known facts the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce deliberately raise the false issue that the Naval Commander-in- Chief sends Her Majesty's ships out to look for native owned vessels, while withholding such assistance from British owned vessels.
As a matter of fact the unfortunate steamer which Captain Bunz of the Porpoise reported as having foundered with such a serious loss of life proved to be a British registered vessel, officered by Englishmen but as correctness as to fact has been altogether ignored in the despatch under consideration, this point is not material.
15. Into the ethics of the question as to the whether it is right or wrong
to save life, I do not propose to enter, though the letter of the Committee of the Chamber of Cominerce opens a wide field for speculation.
16. 1 regret that it has been necessary to address your Excellency at such length in dealing with this subject but as the question has been so deliberately prejudiced, I have thought it right to do so, and I have to request that you
will make any use of it that to your Excellency may seem fit.—I have, &c.,
FREDERICK RICHARDS,
His Excellency Sir WILLIAM ROBINSON, K.C.M.G.,
Fo
de,
ge.. Governor,
Vice-Admirat.
HONGKONG.
595
pril