DIEU
ET MONT
2.
GROI
Government House, Đứng hang.
27
Governor of Hong Kong to endeavour to deal with such a
matter as the draft Anglo-Chinese commercial treaty,
which vitally concerns British and Chinese merchants in
this Colony, without consulting the chief representatives of the principal interests affected. Sir Liles Lampson himself did not propose to deal with this matter, except
after consultation with the British merchants in Shanghai; and I consider that my opinion on the draft treaty referred
to me in the C.C. confidential despatch of the 14th march
would have had little value, unless I had consulted tne
Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong
branch or the China Association. These consultations took
place in strict confidence, and it is not suggested that my confidence was in any way unjustified. Nothing whatever leaked out into the local press, either English or
vernacular.
I cannot help adding that the general feeling leit
upon my wind
-
and not upon me only by the prolonged
-
correspondence on Chinese troubles, which has taken place