461
protection of the British Government Hongkong has
become rather a Chinese than a European community:
and the fact that the Chinese have settled in the
Island in such large numbers has not only been one
main element in its prosperity, but also the most practical and irrefutable evidence that the Govern-
ment under which a politically timid race such as
the Chinese have shown every desire to live, must
have at least possessed some measure of strength
and of justice. How far Hongkong is a Chinese
settlement, how far the Chinese have paid the taxes
and contributed to the trade, is touched upon in
Mr Lockhart's excellent memorandum which accompanies
your despatch. He is clearly of opinion also that
the tendency is for the trade of the colony to pass
more and more into Chinese hands.
I cordially welcome what is said in the petition
as to the skill and energy of the British merchants
who have been or still are residents in Hongkong,
and I can testify with pleasure to their public
spirit. But the fact remains that the overwhelming
mass of the community are Chinese, that they have
thriven under a certain form of government and that
in any scheme involving a change of administration
their wishes should be consulted and their interests
carefully watched and guarded.
7. The communities with which Hongkong is in
the Petition unfavourably contrasted, as regards its
mode of government, are Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius
and British Honduras.
Hongkong, it seems to me,
differs