OP Y.
3.
...
Sir,
C.150
Chambers,
9332
Supreme Court, Hongkong,
1st February, 1909.
I have the honour to acknowledge Your Excellency's letter of 29th January with reference to Mr. Ho Tung's tenancy of the Fyrle in reply to mine.
2.
I am singularly unfortunate in conveying my meaning to Your Excellency. My letter was clearly a reply to the Secretary of State's despatch to Your Excellency, and it did not seem to be necessary to insert a special request that it should be forwarded to the Secretary of State. The last paragraph did not contain a request to Your Excellency, but to the Secretary of State.
3.
I regret that I am unable to appreciate Your Excellency's endeavour to treat the reference of the question to the Secretary of State as a reference to arbitration. It was not, nor could it be considered as such. I have treated the Government with the utmost consideration from the first, far more so than an ordinary person would have done whose rights of property had been interfered with, as he thought illegally; and in any subsequent proceedings, which I fear are now almost inevitable, I should much regret to find the Government relying on...