142371
The Under Secretary of State
Colonial Office.
Sir,
670 C.O. 2174 (Free 20 JAN OB
7, Castle Terrace,
Cowes, Isle of Wight.
19 January 1906
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 42371/1905 under date 2nd December last stating that Mr. Secretary Lyttelton has nothing to add to the reply of 25th November.
2. From your letter No. 27223/1904 of the 9th August 1904 wherein it is stated that being anxious to remove, if possible, any grievance we might consider ourselves entitled to feel, Mr. Secretary Lyttelton had decided to refer to the newly appointed Governor of Hongkong, for enquiry, the question whether further compensation could justly be paid to us; and after my letter of the 25th November last shewing that the further compensation was not commensurate with the injury sustained by depreciation of the Property; that the claim for Loss of Rents had been disallowed, that the Award was not based upon the facts in evidence, but arrived at from conjecture only; and that two Acting Governors had previously failed to award proper compensation; I did not expect to receive a refusal to my request to have the case settled by a Government official experienced in matters of compensation and myself in London; and I can only account for such refusal on the assumption that upon the eve of the resignation of the Ministry, Mr Secretary Lyttelton decided to leave the matter to be completed by his Successor.
In that view I have to ask that the case may be submitted to his Lordship the present Secretary of State for the Colonies for his instructions thereupon, and in order that he may the more easily grasp the position, I will recapitulate as concisely