Government House,
Hongkong, 8th April, 1909.
Sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge your two letters of March 31st and April 1st on the subject of Mr. Seth and the status of the Registrar. As these letters form a continuation of the correspondence forwarded to the Secretary of State they will be of course transmitted, and I leave Lord Crewe to form his own opinion on the contents of the former letter. I have nothing at all to add to what I have already written to Your Honour on this subject, but with regard to your repeated complaint that I did not hold an enquiry into the charge preferred by you against Mr. Seth simply because he chose to deny it, I may point out that the "charge" was not one of misconduct but simply that he had made certain statements in reference to the Colonial Secretary's action which he denied having made. An enquiry in such a matter would seem to me to be futile, and inadvisable, nor did I say or infer (as stated by Your Honour) that it was necessary that your recollection of what had passed some months previously was at fault, or that any misunderstanding had necessarily arisen on your side and not on his.
C.O. 16263
43
ECR
FGP 15 MAY 09