Ping Shan, 22nd April, 1899.
Your Excellency,
I submit herewith a translation of a Chinese petition presented to me here yesterday. As you will see, this petition is presented by Tang Wong Shi of the Sik Hong village in the Ha Tsun District, who complains that her husband Tang A Cheung, who had been sent from Hong Kong to distribute Your Excellency's proclamation in the neighbourhood of Un Long, has been brutally murdered at that place. He was shot there on the 17th inst., after having been cruelly beaten and his body was put in a pig basket and thrown into a stream. Immediately on receiving this petition, which was presented in person by the petitioner, accompanied by her son, I instituted enquiries which confirmed the statements contained in the petition. Two of the men implicated in the murder of Tang Tsung Sz and Tang I Shek had already been known to me as ringleaders in the anti-British movement. Having completed my enquiries, I communicated the result of them to Col. The O'Gorman, O.C., and it was determined to proceed to Ha Tsun in the afternoon and to burn the houses of the culprits if the elders corroborated petitioner's statements. I had previously ascertained that all the persons named in the petition as having been implicated in the murder had fled from this territory and that their present whereabouts are not known. We started from here at 4 p.m. with a party of the H.K.R. under the command of Captain Berger and on arrival at