Enclose to Confidential Despatch of
C. O.
28307
XX
27/7/00 216
29 AUG 00sulate General
Shanghai.
July 19th 1900.
Your Excellency
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of your telegram of to-day with reference to the
dispatch of troops to this place. In reply I
telegraphed that there is no need for troops at
present but that the necessity might arise later on.
In view of the spread of the Boxer movement & of
the danger that the visit of the Viceroy Li Hung
Chang here may do much to upset the agreement at
present existing with the Yangtse Viceroys, I
urged upon Her Majesty's Government the advisability
of having a force ready either at Hongkong or
Weihaiwei to leave for this port at short notice.
It seems very doubtful whether the Viceroys will be
able to keep the peace in their districts- witness
the riots in the Poyang lake districts & at
Hengchou in Hunan. Should the soldiers get out of
Sir H.A. Blake G.C.M.G.
hand
3.1.
8C
&C
800.