AR
)
sir,
493 484
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HongKong, 21st March, 1903.
I am directed by the Governor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of yesterday's date transmitting a
petition from the Chinese inhabitants to the Secretary of State
praying that the term of His Excellency's administration should
be extended.
The Governor desires to convey to the Chinese
Community through you his grateful acknowkdgment of their
expression of confidence and goodwill in the petition of which
his first authentic information was its receipt last evening.
It will be forwarded in due course to the Secretary of State
for the Colonies, and while you will understand that the regu-
lation by which the duration of a Governor's administration is
determined is the result of careful consideration after long
experience, His Excellency desires me to say that the Chinese
Community may rest assured that whoever may be the Governor,
the administration of this important Colony will in the future
as in the past, be conducted with a just and sympathetic con- sideration for the Chinese population to whose industry,
energy, and business capacity the Colony is so largely indebted
for its phenomenal progress.
(Sa.). JOHN KEANEJ
Private Secretary.
SHONOURABLE
DR. HO KAI, C.M.G.~·