66
you that, before arriving at their
present decision, His Majesty's
Government gave their careful
consideration to certain alternative
suggestions as to the best means of
disposing of the Chinese in question,
since they readily appreciate the
Colony's desire to avoid assuming
responsibility for these men for a
longer period than is strictly
necessary, having regard to the
difficulties, financial and otherwise,
with which the Colony has been faced
in the past months as a result of
the large influx of refugees for
whom emergency provision has had to
be made. The proposal contained
in your telegram No. 361, viz., that
the interned men should be sent in
contingents of a hundred to Canton and
Shanghai according to their birth places,
with a view to their being released and
given
"