CONFIDENTIAL.
789
COLY.
Ping Shan, 21st April, 1899.
Your Excellency,
We passed a good night here last evening. Everything is quiet and the villagers appear to be returning to the villages here. Col. The O'Gorman has just received orders from the G.O.C. to have some of the troops withdrawn. 300 men are to be left. I think it is unfortunate that any of the troops here should have been withdrawn at the present moment as their withdrawal may be misunderstood by the Chinese and their presence is creating such a good effect.
I have had no letter from Your Excellency since your communication of the 16th instant enclosing copies of despatches from the Viceroy with the exception of your minute on the opium papers. I am enclosing copies of the messages forwarded by me to Taipo in case they may not have reached you. I have not kept copies of the letters I have sent to you every day since the hoisting of the flag. I should like to have copies if Your Excellency has no objection.
I think it is important now the villagers are returning that I should remain on the spot. The co-operation between Col. The O'Gorman and myself has been most cordial and could not have been more satisfactory. There has been a tendency in a certain quarter to create friction rather than harmony at a time when harmony is all important. The rapid and immediate action, which I recommended from the first, as the G.O.C. no doubt...