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Enclosure 2. in hy
TRANSLATION OF PETITION
C.0.
13875
IL MAY
543
We gentry of the 39 villages of the Tat Tak Community of the Ping Shan District beg to present this humble petition stating the cause of the recent trouble and begging for pardon.
Last month His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong issued instructions for the erection of a Police matshed in our district. At that time we had not received any proclamation from the British Government nor from the Chinese Government so that through want of information we became suspicious and unsettled in mind. A few lawless rascals spread wild reports which misled the villagers. They said that the Fung Shui of the district will be injuriously affected by the erection of a matshed and that when the territory is taken over by the English Government a Sanitary Board will be created; that a poll tax will be levied; that licences will be required for keeping domestic animals; that our marriage customs and funeral ceremonies will be altered; that the cutting and gathering of firewood will be prohibited. The ignorant villagers believed this to be true and the feeling of alarm became so general that the inhabitants of Kam T'in, Ün Long, Ha Tsün, Shap Pat Heung, Castle Peak and other villagers determined to make things difficult for the British Officers.
We your humble petitioners were at first misled but afterwards came forward to explain matters and give good advice to the inhabitants. But they not only would not listen to