REG 7
BRITISH CONSULATE,
MANILA.
13th July 1899.
My Lord:-
Owing to the complete stagnation of all commercial enterprises here and the impossibility of British Subjects of the uneducated class obtaining any work except manual labour on the roads which in this climate very few can undertake without becoming laid up, I am daily requested by perfectly destitute British Subjects to forward them to Hong Kong where under British rule they can obtain relief; as there are here at present probably over thirty of such applicants, and I regret to say others constantly arriving,
I shall feel obliged if I may receive instructions authorizing me to grant them passages to Hongkong on being satisfied that they are absolutely destitute, and that they are British Subjects.
Under
Marquess of Salisbury, K.G.,
&c. &c., &c.