In my opinion the place and wholly its circumstances are unsuited for that is proport: It is an Imperial Station with great Imperial interests, on the borders of a foreign land, it added the nucleus of wide reaching British interests in the Far East, must, it appears to me, be kept under Imperial protection and under Imperial control.
So far I am assuming this much that the self government would be worthy of the name, and that the elective system would include all ranks of the community, but this is not what the Petition demands. Those who framed it and signed it would, I think, be disappointed to gather the power in the hands of a select few, and constitute a small oligarchy.
I am wholly opposed to any such change and I consider that the well being of the large majority of the inhabitants is more likely to be safeguarded under the Crown Colony system, under which, as far as possible, no distinction is made of rank or race, than by representations which would leave the bulk of the population wholly unrepresented.
In short I can hold out no hope whatever, that Hongkong will cease to be a Crown Colony.
DRAFT.
Mr.
MINUTE.
Mr. Fairfield.
Mr. Wingfield,
Mr. Bramston.
Mr. Meude.
Mr. Buxton.
Marquess of Ripon,
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