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3. I arranged with the Major-General Commanding and the Commodore to send a relieving force of 100 men as soon as steam could be got on a Torpedo Destroyer. They were accompanied by the Colonial Secretary to whom I gave the instructions enclosed and whose report I annex. I enclose also the report furnished by Major-General Gascoigne, C.M.G., who himself accompanied the troops and Mr. May, Captain Superintendent of Police.
4. I have considered in Executive Council the question whether it would be advisable in consequence of the threatening attitude of the people to hoist our flag at once and the majority of the Members agree with me that it is better to wait until the 17th. Mr. Stewart Lockhart, whose knowledge of the people is great, and who has means of obtaining special information, is of opinion that this attack is part of a general movement against our occupation on the part of the literati who have hitherto lived by irregular squeezes from the people, and of the gamblers, and bad characters banished from Hong-Kong, and I am disposed to agree with him. But the heaviest punishment that we could inflict, even if we could define the offence of which the people have been guilty, remembering that we have so far no legal standing, would not equal the expense and discomfort of having to support the Chinese soldiers sent into the district to-day by the Viceroy in fulfilment of his undertaking. The probable result will be to welcome our appearance on the 17th instant with the disappearance of the Chinese troops. I know so little of the Chinese character and