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To
Enclosure t
Love
The Right Honourable
Joseph Chamberlain, P. C., M. P.
despatch No 16.2 qthe 31st of touch 1903.
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.
The Humble Petition of the undersigned Chinese
Inhabitants and Firms of Hongkong on behalf of
themselves and every section of the Chinese
Community
496
Respectfully Sheweth :-
1. That Your Petitioners are the leading Chinese Residents and Firms of end in the Colony of
Hongkong and its Dependencies, who, together with the rest of the Chinese Community, constitute
close upon ninety-seven per centum of the total inhabitants of the Colony and about seventeen-
twentieths of its rate-paying Community.
2. That most of Your Petitioners have either been born or naturalised as British subjects in
this Colony, or have resided permanently there in for a very large number of years, and all of them
without exception have considerable stake and interests in the land and commerce of this Colony.
3. That since the cession of this Island to the British Crown and since the period of which
Your Petitioners have any remembrance, the Goverment of this Colony has been conducted with
ability and justice, for which Your Petitioners together with their Chinese fellow-citizens are
truly and profoundly grateful.
4. That during the last five years since the arrival of His Excellency Sir Henry A. Blake,
G. C. M. G., as Governor of Hongkong, the Government of this Colony has assumed not merely a just
but a liberal, benevolent, and sympathetic character, and that at no time within the recollection
and experienos of the oldest of Your Petitioners has an administration been so universally appre-
ciated and admired.
5. That to say that the admiration of Sir Henry Blake has completely won the confidence,
respect, and admiration of the entire Chinese population and has cemented their loyalty and
affection to the British Crown, is but to state a well acknowledged truth, and that the present
Petition is the outcome of the earnest desire on the part of every section of the Chinese Commu-
nity to seek for a continuation of a strong, wise, just, and sympathetic rule at a time more or
less unsettled and troublous.
6. That to enumerate the many benevolent acts and liberal measures adopted by Sir Henry Blake
during
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