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for a long time to come, require Military assistance.
At the same time I think it would be a
wise and highly politic measure to take advantage of the present
opportunity, to seize any further extension which may be thought
desirable and to so increase my Garrison as to enable me to
hold such extension in perfect security, and also should the
occasion arise (which I firmly believe it will) that sudden ri-
sings in various parts of China, more or less considered to be
under the sphere of British influence, might cause appeals for
help from the garrison of Hongkong which appeals I should in that case be able to grant to the exclusion possibly of some
other foreign power.
Hongkong,
May 10th., 1899.
(Sd.) W. J. Gascoigne,
Major-General.