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be placed in the New Territory to protect it until I took it over. I told him that I had determined to hoist the flag next morning and that all Chinese soldiers and officials must leave the leased area. On the 17th, the Commissioner of Imperial Customs conveyed to me that Deputy Wang wished to see me and shortly after he waited upon me accompanied by Mr. Hillier, the Chinese Commissioner. Deputy Wang was anxious to discuss the Customs question about which he had evidently been sent down, but I declined to enter upon the subject. I told him that I could not permit Chinese troops to remain in the territory and at Kowloon and could not understand why the Viceroy should have considered it necessary to send to Kowloon an additional force of 300 men two days before the date on which I announced that the New Territory would be taken over. He pressed for some time with the question, and in the course of his remarks said something which the Chinese Customs Commissioner did not translate, saying it was mere folly, but Mr. Mansfield, Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, who was present, at once interpreted it as a statement that the 300 soldiers had been sent down to protect the Customs. I told him that it was necessary that these men should be withdrawn; he promised to telegraph to the Viceroy and if no answer was returned to go to Canton himself, although from the known state of the Viceroy's feelings he had little hope of obtaining the necessary authority to move. I made it clear that it would be necessary for the soldiers to withdraw whatever the state of the Viceroy's feelings. Deputy Wang stated that there were several