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wanted barbed wire to put around his refugee camp to keep refugees from disappearing into the population of the Colony failed to get any supplies from the Director of Public Works, and was finally told, after considerable delay, that tenders would be put up in the normal way for the supply of barbed wire. At a time when it is necessary, on defence grounds, to control the influx of refugees into the Colony, it is a trifle alarming to find that the practical measures to put such policy into effect are treated in this way. In the same way, according to evidence, the Immigration Department found its water work hampered by the failure of the Police Department to supply them with any launches. The Governor does not say whether the Hong Kong Government propose to adopt the Commission's suggestion that an officer should be appointed to see that Government orders are carried promptly into effect. I am doubtful whether the conditions of such a "grand inquisitor" would in fact serve much useful purpose, but the objects in point would be far better served by closer supervision by the Colonial Secretariat and heads of Departments generally.
The other point with which we are concerned is that of the implications of the report on our relations with the Government of China. The Governor states that he has no reason to feel that the under- taking that the Ordinance would be administered with tact and sympathy is regarded as having been broken by the Chinese Government. There were two instances quoted in the evidence before the Commission where prominent Chinese were treated by Mr. Forrest or his Department as courteously as they might think themselves entitled, and one Chinese witness appeared before the Commission to state that the developments under the Immigration Department had ruined the good name which Hong Kong enjoyed by the people of China. We have also heard from Sir Alexander Clark Kerr that in his view the Chinese Government felt considerable annoyance at the method in which the Ordinance was administered in Hag Kong, and consequently the position is perhaps not so satisfactory as the Governor's despatch might suggest. At the same time we have sent a telegram to Hong Kong asking them to tighten up the administration of the Ordinance, and perhaps at this juncture to follow it up with another telegram urging them to be sympathetic to the Chinese might seem contradictory and witching
13.9.41.
Mr. Jeffries.
Sir A. Burns.
There is a great mass of reading in the enclosures in this despatch which I have only found it possible to complete during the intervals allowed by more pressing work. I don't suggest that it is necessary for you to read anything more than the despatch, the printed report, and enclosures 5 and 6.
In our telegram No. 3 in this file the S. of s.§ disappointment was expressed to the Governor that such a state of affairs had been allowed to develop
in a matter, as the Colonial Government knew, to which considerable political importance was attached in view of the protests made by the Chinese Government against this new restrictive measure on the immigration of Chinese into Hong Kong. The Commissioners, as the Governor