No. 27.
Sir,
821
Colonial Secretary's Office,
Hong Kong, 19th April, 1899.
I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th instant enclosing translation of a note received from the Viceroy relative to the removal of Chinese officials and soldiers from the New Territory, and with reference thereto to express the Governor's regret that the military officers have disobeyed the instructions issued by the Viceroy. No protection whatever was given to the erections that His Excellency had undertaken to protect; on the other hand, the Governor is informed that large numbers of Chinese subjects entered the leased area, having concentrated at Sam-Chin and other places north of the boundary, that they occupied points of military vantage, dug extensive intrenchments, and some thousands were in a position commanding the landing place at Taipo-Hu on the 15th instant. These men were fully armed and had artillery. They were regularly uniformed and carried flags, one of which subsequently captured in repulsing the attack made upon Her Majesty's troops is the official flag of the local forces of the Chinese Government.
The company of Her Majesty's troops who marched out to Tai-po-Hu on the 15th to prepare for the ceremony of the 17th instant, of which the Governor had duly informed the Viceroy, was assailed by those men with a heavy fire and their capture of...