No. 315
Hongkong.
904
396
Pec
Government House, 109
Hongkong 11th. December, 1908.
i
My Lord,
Hof C 37387
of
I have the honour to acknowledge
řeceipt of your despatch No. 238 of October 21st. covering
a transcript of the question asked by Mr. T. C. Taylor in
the House on October 19th. and the reply of the Under Sec-
Colonce Seeley
retary of State. I observe that the Colonial Secretary
promised to enquire into the truth of the allegation that
Chinese inhabitants of Hongkong are afraid to form Anti-
opium Societies because of the belief that the British
Authorities are opposed to such action, and I have the
honour therefore to submit the following observations.
follows:-
2.
The Registrar General reports as
"There was an anti-opium society started in
Hongkong a year or two ago at the time when Tsang Shiu-
"heng, the so-called patriot, made such movements popular in
There is no shadow of founda-
Shanghai and South China.
tion for the suggestion that the Government has ever set
its face against the formation of such societies. The
confidential clerk of the Registrar General was a member RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF CREWE,
800.
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80 • *
of