#
Confidential.
28th August, 1914.
295
Bir:-
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt
of Your Excellency's despatch of the 19th instant
enclosing copy of a despatch which you had addressed
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, respect-
ing the alleged transport of food destined for
Tsingtao over the Tientsin-Tsinanfu Railway.
In that despatch you enclose paraphrase of a
cypher telegram which you sent to me on the 19th
instant, and in this connection I owe Your Excellency
the following explanation.
The telegram in question duly reached me but
it was unsigned, and I had no means of knowing whether
it came from Your Excellency the Admiral or the
General Officer Commanding in South China.
It re-
lated to a matter which occupied the attention of
this Legation daily since the outbreak of war in
Europe and it would have been quite impossible, within
the compass of a telegraphic reply, to have answered
Excellency
Bir F. H. May, K.C.M.G.,
&C., &c.,
&c.,
your