Enclosure 9.
C. O.
15922
Hon: T. H. Whitehead to Captain Sterling. A.D.C.
Rad 18 SEP 53]
452
Hong-Kong 8th August 1893.
I have received your letter of the 5th instant
and have endeavoured to give it due consideration.
I am very sorry that you should have had the trouble
of again writing. I thought I had made it quite clear in
my letter of the 2nd instant, that I could not consent to
serve on the Commission as at present constituted. I said
or intended to say in the second last paragraph of that note
that if His Excellency could not see his way to the appointment
of such a Commission as was unanimously asked for by
the Unofficial Members I felt prevented from taking part in
the proceedings of a Committee so composed that while barring
the way to a more effective enquiry in the future, it could
not hope to accomplish much in the present. It is with very
great regret that I find myself compelled to adhere to the
decision embodied in these few words, and I can only apologise
to His Excellency for the trouble I have given and thank
him for his considerate kindness in permitting me to reconsider
the matter a second time, and for his courtesy in communicating
Mr. Justice Clarke's views on the subject.
There are two points in His Honour's letter with
quite reference to which I cannot agree with him, and in which I
am afraid I differ from His Excellency also. I do not think
that