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and correspondence relating thereto, are required for the use of the Intelligence Depart- ment of this Office, and will be kept strictly confidential, under proper safeguards.

I have, &c.

(Signed) RALPH THOMPSON,

No. 346.

Foreign Office to Colonial Office.

(Secret.) Sir,

Foreign Office, October 17, 1878. WITH reference to your letter of the 26th August last, inclosing copies of corre- spondence with the Governor of Hong Kong relating to the possibility of utilizing that Colony as a recruiting-ground for raising Chinese regiments for the Queen's service in India or elsewhere, I am directed by the Marquis of Salisbury to transmit to you the accompanying letter from Sir Thomas Wade, whom his Lordship has consulted upon this Bubject; and I am to request that, in laying the inclosed letter before Sir M. Hicks Beach, you will state that his Lordship entirely concurs in the views expressed by Sir Thomas Wade on the question.

I am further to request that Sir Thomas Wade's letter may be returned, which, with your letter above referred to, has been communicated to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

Inclosure in No. 346.

T. V. LISTER.

(Confidential.) My Lord,

London, September 30, 1878. IN accordance with your Lordship's desire, I have carefully considered the suggestion contained in the correspondence inclosed in the Honourable Robert Meade's letter of the 26th August, namely, that Hong Kong might be employed as a recruiting-ground for raising Chinese regiments for service in India or elsewhere.

The Colony, it would appear from a recent Report of the Colonial Defence Committee, has a police force numbering 650 men, of whom 110 are European, 176 Indians, and 340 Chinese, and it seems to have been thought possible that the Gun Lascar Force might be supplemented by Chinese enlisted in the Colony, and that a battalion of such Chinese might be formed there. Colonel Moggridge, late Commanding Royal Engineer in Hong Kong, is of opinion, says the Report, that they would willingly take service and would be reliable.

I have no doubt that they would readily take service, but I should be sorry to see a large force of Chinese employed in Hong Kong. They could certainly not be relied upon if there were any misunderstanding between the Chinese Government and our own. Sup- posing that there are now as many as 130,000 Chinese, the number named by Governor Hennessy as "resident," who, consequently, may be in some sort regarded as the subjects of Her Majesty, the kindred of all these people belong to the coast districts, and at a moment's notice the pressure of the Canton Government would compel them to return to China. Their families would otherwise be compromised. In the troubles arising out of what was known as the lorcha “Arrow” affair, in 1856-57, some 80 per cent. of the servants of the community were recalled to their villages; the shopkeepers also. The latter, if people of substance, paying heavily towards the expense of operating against us.

Even in times of peace I should look for plenty of desertion if discipline were strict, and no deserter would ever be restored to us by the Chinese Government, which, even for Colonial purposes, is not likely to view the formation of Chinese battalions in Hong Kong with any favour.

There is another objection to recruiting in the Colony. Governor Hennessy relies, if I do not mistake his meaning, upon the Chinese who pass through the Colony to the number of 700,000 a-vear. These are, beyond all doubt, subjecta of China, and I feel sure that their enrolment as troope, within two miles of the shore of China, would soon provoke remonstrance.

I am opposed, therefore, to enlistment at Hong Kong, or to the employment of Chinese as soldiers, except within very narrow limits, in the Colony.

On the other hand, at a distance from the Colony I should be heartily glad to see them

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so employed. Paid and led, as they would be, under British officers, no better troops could be found. Fifteen years ago I submitted to Sir Frederick Bruce, then my chief, a proposi- tion to form regiments for service in India, which, after a certain term, might be restored to their own country as part of its regular army. The idea was a great deal too novel, however, to meet with encouragement at the Yamên of Foreign Affairs, cager as were its Ministers at the time for aid against the rebels. Nor would the Chinese Government probably be more favourably inclined to it now. But I think that we could achieve what we want without appealing to the Government, and without offence to it, if the Straits Settlements were made our recruiting-ground. I have, for some time, had it in contemplation to move your Lordship to recommend the Settlements to the attention of uur Colonists, whether in the West Indies, the Cape of Good Hope, or elsewhere, who are anxious to import labour.

I am guided by what I know of emigration to California Many of the Chinese there of course have gone on their own business, and of their own free will. But many go simply as the contract labourers or employés of their own countrymen, to whom they are bound for such or such a job, or for so many years of service. This involves no kidnapping, no barracoon system. The emigrants come and go by the thousand in the splendid steam- ships that cross the Pacific. There is an equally steady flow of the same class of emigrant between the southern ports of China and the Straits, and I have no doubt that, with the aid of native agents, hundreds of Chinese might be induced to enlist for a stated term of service in India or elsewhere.

With its experience of the faction fights in which the Chinese at Singapore indulge, I can imagine that the Straits Government would demur to any longer detention of the recruite than could be avoided within its jurisdiction. They had best no doubt be forwarded at once to their destination. Once formed, I repeat that I can imagine no better soldiers, but I should never trust them without an admixture of Europeans, and it would be well at all times to leave magazines, munitions of war, and the like, exclusively in charge of the latter. Neglect of this precaution at Hong Kong would, I believe, be attended with the most serious consequences.

The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G.,

&c. &c. &c.

I have, &c.

(Signed) THOMAS FRANCIS WADE.

P.S.-I return the papers inclosed to me.

No. 347.

Beach, Bart-(Received October 21.)

T. F. W.)

Governor Sir H. St. George Ord, K.C.M.G., C.B., to the Right Hon. Sir M. E. Hicks

(Secret and Confidential.)

Sir,

Government House, Perth, Angust 28, 1878. I HAVE had the honour to receive your Circular despatch, Secret, of the 20th March, 1878, furnishing me with instructions on certain points relating to the defence of the Colony, in view of the critical state of affairs then existing on the Continent, and inviting my special attention to the general question that I might have full time and opportunity for maturing my views in the event of any outbreak of war.

2. I have also had the honour to receive your despatch Secret and Confidential of the 26th April, 1878,† transmitting me a copy of a Report, as regards the Australian Colonies, of a Committee appointed to consider the measures to be taken for the temporary defence of the Colonies in the event of war, and your further Secret despatches of the 22nd May and 7th June, 1878, relating to the question of coal supplies, and the measures to be adopted in regard to them in the contingency before mentioned.

3. One of the principal points to which I have been accustomed to direct my attention on assuming the Government of a Colony has been the means which oxisted, or required to be provided, for its protection in the event of war or internal distur- bances. I did not fail to adopt this course on my arrival here, and had the prospect of war contiuued as imminent, as it appeared when your carlier despatches were written, I should not have failed to communicate to you at once the conclusions I had come to on the points to which they referred, but as when they reached me I was

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PUBLIC RECORD, OFFICE

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