COPY.
Enclosure 1.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Sir,
43171
Rro 17 SEP 15;
388
Colonial Secretary's Office,
Hongkong, 22nd, July, 1915.
I am directed to transmit for the information of your Committee the enclosed copy of a circular letter which has been received by me from the Chairman of the Central Committee of the National Patriotic Organisations.
2.
It will be observed that it suggested in this circular letter that a Public Meeting should be held in this Colony on the 4th. of August at which the resolution, copy of which is enclosed in the letter, expressing the determination of the citizens of this Colony to carry the war in Europe to a successful conclusion should be adopted.
3.
This letter has received the careful consideration of the Governor and his advisers and the conclusion His Excellency has arrived at is that while such a meeting and resolution would be appropriate in any of the great Self-Governing Dependencies and in some Crow Colonies with a large population of British subjects, they would be somewhat out of place in this small Crom Colony the vast majority of whose inhabitants are aliens, and would certainly be misunderstood both by enemy subjects in China and by the Chinese both in the Colony and in China.
4.
The Chinese who know the British nation well are already convinced that the British Empire will fight in this war to the end, and the great majority of Chinese believe in the ultimate victory of the Allies. If now a demonstration is inaugurated for the purpose of needlessly proclaining what the Chinese already conceive to be our intention, the Chinese will inevitable construe gur action as one prompted by uncertainty as to the issue of the war and by a desire to frighten our enemies and to re-assure our- -selves.
The Germans in China would probably draw the same fnferences and make capital out of what they would describe as & loss of confidence on our part.
5.
Holding these views His Excellency, and his advisers, deprecate any participation by this Colony, peculiarly situated as it is, in the proposal of the Central Committee of the National Patriotic Association.
I am etc..
(Sd.) Claud Severn,
Colonial Secretary.
he Secretary,
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,