Sir,
COPY OF LETTER SENT TO THE HON. MR. W.F.SOUTHORN, C.M. G., COLONIAL SECRETARY, HONGKONG, DALED
21st NOVEER, 1929.
Your ref: No. 1030/1929.
43
'RAY" REFECTIVE SIGNS.
of
We have the honour to acdiowledge receipt your letter dated 23th October, which cane to mana on the 29th, and we regret delay in replying, which, however, is entirely due to Writer's recent a osence from this Colony,
We have now carefully perused the contents of your letter, and regret to live to inforn you that same are, to our mind, distinctly unsatisfactory. It seems that we can not pro ceed very much further in this matter with the local Authorities, au after ueliberation, we have cone to the con- clusion timet it is desirable, in our interests, that this question De referred to the Secretary of State in London. We would, therefore, be glad if you would kindly advise us exactly what procedure it is necessary to follow in asking you to forward this complaint through your offices.
We hope, therefore, that we shall have the honour to receive an early reply from you, so that this matter can De negotiated further without our being subjected to any additional unnecessary delay.
at the present tine, however, we would also like to state tat, in our opinion, the fact of the natural beauties of any colony being considered so much to the detriment of Bri ti si trade, is a rather weak excuse. We have also already pointed out tat it is not our intention, nor is it every been, to have any of these 3igus erected indiscriminately through the Colony, but that only sites would be considered which would, while serving our purpose, not uisfigure the landscape in any way at all. As a strict matter of fact, it also does appear to us tikt very little effort is been made on the part of the Goverment OfficialS to get any autuki idea of the Sigils which we propuse.
The whole thing as seen dealt wita on the strength of correspondence, am as we pointed out in a previous letter, at one interview with one of your Officiaïs, he singly refused permission, and without ving the vaguest idea of the Signs for which we were asking permission to have erected.
We would just like to further assure you
that one of the main objects of merchant houses in British Colonies is to advance British Industries, which, especially in the present stage of business, is very necessary and we are really disappointed beyond words at the support which we inve had at the hands of the local overment Officials.
>
In reply to te gewond paragraph of your letter, we note that you express regret at the delay which has oc curred in having this atter dealt wi thi. While we thoroughly appreciate the fact that your Office has been subjected to a great pressure of work recently, we think, at the same tine, that there is very little excuse for a matter to ive been delayed for sudi a long period as has been our experience.