C.O. 16557 RECO REG 27 JUN 19 461
Your Excellency,
I am not able to legally define the offence of which those who have been implicated in rebelling against British authority are guilty, but I do not anticipate any difficulty in finding further evidence against the ringleaders in addition to that already forwarded by me if it is decided to proceed against them. They are not many in number and I have already given their names in previous reports.
Comment is not infrequently made by the Chinese here regarding the lenient manner in which those who are really responsible for all the trouble are being treated.
It appears to me that the simplest plan would be to banish them from our territory and to confiscate their property, devoting the proceeds to public purposes. These men did not wish to enjoy the benefits of British rule, so it will be no great hardship to them to transfer their energies to a soil more congenial to them.
The Local Communities Ordinance was drafted in accordance with the instructions of the Secretary of State, who directed that the organisation at present in existence here should be utilised as far as possible. The ringleaders in the recent movement do not include all the gentry and elders. If the ringleaders are removed from British territory, the working of the Local Communities administration, so far from being interfered with or rendered impossible, will be made more easy.
(Signed) J. H. Stewart Lockhart.
Taipo, 5th May 1899.
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