The principle involved is of far greater importance to the Steamboat Companies than any money payment and this Committee considers that unless the claim is enforced a very serious blow will be dealt to British prestige in China and that unjust leniency can only result in still further defiance of treaty obligations on the part of the Provincial Authorities.
It is in this belief, and in the hope that Your Lordship will in the interests of the Colony represent the matter in this light to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that I have ventured to address Your Lordship so fully on this subject.
I have, etc.
sdbert A. dewett,
Chairman.