(CU FY) 418
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce.
Hongkong, 20th November, 1900
Sir,
3389 (RECEIVED JAN 07)
With reference to my letter of 17th August last in which I laid before you, for submission to His Excellency the Governor, the views of the Committee of the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce with regard to the piratical attack on the British S.S. "Sainan" while between Fatshan and Samshui on the West River on the 13th June, I now beg to inform you that a copy of a letter from H.E. the Consul-General at Canton dated the 6th instant addressed to the Secretary of the Hongkong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Co. Ltd. has been laid before our Committee.
In this letter the statement is made that the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs has directed the British Minister at Peking that the claim for consequential damages put forward by the owners of the S.S. "Sainan" cannot be supported by His Majesty's Government.
The position taken up by His Majesty's Ministers in this matter is in the opinion of this Committee calculated to have such a far-reaching and disastrous effect upon British Trade in Southern China as to call for the strongest protest on the part of the Committee of this Chamber.
A telegram has therefore been despatched to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs requesting that pending receipt of the Chamber's written protest the instructions now issued by the Foreign Office to His Majesty's Representative in China be suspended. A letter on the subject has also been addressed to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
I now beg to enclose copy of the telegram and letters referred to and would venture to express the hope that His Excellency...
The Honourable The Colonial Secretary.