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oninion also that the tendency is for the trade of the Colony to pass more and more into Chinese hands. I cordially welcome what he said in the petition as to the skill and energy of the British merchants who have been or who still are residents in Hongkong and I can testify with pleasure to their public spirit. But the fact remains that the overwhelming mass of the community are Chinese, that they have thriven under a certain form of government and that in any scheme in- volving a change of administration their wishes should be consulted and their interests carefully watched and guarded.
7.
The communities with which Hongkong is in the petition unfavourably contrasted as regards its mode of government, are Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius and British Honduras. Hongkong, it seems to me differs from all of these four dependencies of the British Crown alike in degree and in kind. It is smaller than any of them, it has no history or traditions, no record of old settlements or of political usages and constitutional rights. It has practically no indigenous population; and, if I understand. right, it has few lifelong residents whether European or Chinese.
8. It is perhaps a fair account of Hongkong and its fortunes as a British Colony, to say that 50 years ago it was taken by and for the British Crown to serve Imperial purposes, and to safeguard British trade in the far east. Holding a commanding position at the mouth of the Canton river; endowed by nature with a fine harbour, which has been carefully kept as a free
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