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NO CONFIDE
RF
20234
Rach 23 API 23
469
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG. 14th March, 1923.
و ہے
22707
ZZ
My Lord Duke,
I have postponed for what, I fear, may appear an unreasonable time returning an answer to Mr. Secretary Churchill's despatch No.314 of the 18th of October, 1922, with regard to the petition from the Constitutional Reform Association of Hongkong.
The delay has been due partly to my desire
to examine the list of names attached to the petition in order that I might see how far these names represented public opinion, partly to a wish to see whether anybody took sufficient interest in the question to agitate for a reply, and partly to pressure of other work, but mainly tol political considerations of some importance to which I will recur at the end of this despatch.
2.
The examination of the list of signatories
has not given much guidance. It contains the names of perhaps twenty or twenty-five persons of same standing, men whose opinions might be regarded as entitled to carry some weight. The remainder are those of men who are no doubt worthy and respectable citizens but whose views would certainly not be thought to be of much importance
even by those whose names are in the same list.
In any case I should hesitate to attach
much value to the number of names attached to a petition
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
of
THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G.,
&c.
80.
&o..