(
hinese
the Company from the dilemma in which Chinese aggressive-
-ness had placed it, and of asserting the authority
of the Government, for which the Chinese population
at that time had but scant respect.
I have reason to believe that, within the Colony
and in other countries in the Far East, the means adopted
a
are regarded as reasonable and justifiable weapon for
dealing at any rate with some phases of boycott. I
am convinced that the repeal of the Ordinance would
be regarded both in the Colony and in neighbouring
countries as a retrograde step, which must prejudios
enormously the prestige this Government has won by
suppressing by peaceful and constitutional means a
movement the duration of which, in the absence of the
measures taken, it is impossible to estimate.
9. It is difficult, I am fully aware, for one
at a distance to appreciate the importance which those
on the spot attach to the maintenance of prestige,
even in a matter of such comparatively trivial importance
as the boycott which led to the legislation under
discussion. One has first to know of one's own
knowledge the animosity against foreigners which,
always existent in the Chinese mind, has been inflamed
by the recent revolution. To give you a couple of
examples of the real feelings of the mass of the
population towards Englishmen in this Colony, I may
adduce the following.
When the Police searched the lodging of the
Chinese who made an attempt on my life on my landing
in July last, they found a letter written the day
after the occurrence by a Chinese woman of the peasant
class in whose miserably poor dwelling my assailant
lodged.
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