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The Right Honourable The Earl of Elgin
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies
The Humble Petition of John Shaw
C M Gregor and others, Master Mariners,
of the Vessels hereinafter referred to
Showeth as follows;
Your Petitioners are Master Mariners, respectively in command of the several Vessels mentioned in the Schedule hereto.
The names of your Petitioners with their respective signatures, and the length of time during which they have been acquainted with Antonio Paulo Guterres hereinafter mentioned, are respectively set out in the said Schedule opposite the names of the Vessels of which Your Petitioners are respectively Masters.
Your Petitioners respectfully pray that your Lordship may be pleased to direct that Antonio Paulo Guterres may be re-instated in his office of First Clerk in the Mercantile Marine Office of the Harbour Department in the Colony of Hong-kong.
Your Petitioners would respectfully urge as their grounds for this Petition the following:
(a) That the said Antonio Paulo Guterres was continuously employed in the service of the Hongkong Government in the Harbour Department from the 7th April 1869 to the 23rd January 1907, a period of over thirty years.
(b) That from Your Petitioners' knowledge of and acquaintance with the said Antonio Paulo Guterres, they are enabled to submit, as they
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