CO129-087 - Sir Robinson - 1862 [7] & Acting Governor Mercer - 1862 [7-9] — Page 320

316

11

30

Enclosure marked A.

WILLIAM TARRANT Esq.,

SIR,-I have received your letter dated the 19th, and I have perused with attention.

As to your understanding in relation to the matter regarding which Mr. Caldwell came to Macao in 1860, I find the great part of your remarks correct. I am,

Your obedient Servant,

signed, L. MARQUIS,

Procurador.

The above is appended to a copy of the letter, and sealed with was and official stamp.

True copy

W. TARRANT.

Enclosure marked B.

Macao 19th February 1862.

L. Marquis Esq., Procurador.

SIR,-Having reference to the various enquiries which I have made at your office lately, and of yourself on the subject of the narrative which you sent to the Editor of the Daily Press on the 5th March 1860, and, as I have shown you, bound up in an appendix to Minutes of enquiry into Civil service abuses before the Executive Council of the Hongkong Government; and more particularly regarding Mr Caldwell's reply to your letter of the 29th of February, of date the 10th of March 1860, bound up in the same volume, I shall feel obliged it you will appeal to this letter (which I send in duplicate) a certificate of your appreciation of my baving correctly understood your and the other statements.-

Commencing with the 10th printed paragraph of the letter, on the 35th page of the appendix-you say that you deny that it was proved to you that the five men whom Mr Caldwell relieved from their contracts were kidnapped. When the men found that by saying they did not want to go they could be released, they said so; and you opine that every contract cooled in Macao would make a similar statement, though that would not prove that they were kidnapped.

As to para 12 on the same page,-Had the informer pointed your attention at the time to the man whom he said was one of the brokers that

came from Hongkong with the 45 Coolees, you would have apprehended him-But neither did he then nor subsequently; and when you found that the informer was an impostor, you came to the conclusion that his asser- tion of having seen such a person at all was of a piece with the rest of his conduct.

As regards paras 15 and 16 on page 30, in which Mr. Caldwell speaks of inaccuracies on your part in the statement of what he told you when he first came over regarding the Coolees,while adhering to your impres- sion on the subject, and now believing that you were intentionally misled, you say that it matters not whether the informer were or were not a policeman after he reached Hongkong from Macao. What was clear to you was that the informer lied when he said that he had been confined in the Sun-fook-tie hong, and that he was one of three that had escaped in the month of December. The names of the men who so escaped, as shown by the Register of coolees who had signed contracts, and were intended to go in the Emilie Pireire, were Leon Ao-an of Hoi-ping, Le Ahee of Chau-choon, and Sun Acum of Fu-yen. These men were received in Octo- ber, and escaped on the first of December; whereas the informer called himself Asoong, and to have been one of the 45 from Hongkong for whom Mr. Caldwell affected to seck, could not have been in the Hong at the date of the escape in question; the said 45, according to the story, only reaching Macao on the 27th of December.

As to para 18 on the same page, you adhere to your statement that the informer said four of his companions were at the Barracoon at St. Antonio.

As regards para 21 on the 36th page, touching the Coolee brought from the St. Lourenço barracoon and released by Mr. Caldwell, you say this man was undoubtedly an impostor, for the contract which he had signed bears date the 6th of December; and you supply me with an attested copy of this contract viz No. 154, between Chong Afa and Messrs. Morales & Co. You also furnish to me attested copies of the contracts of the four others released by Mr. Caldwell; and you notice that Kwon-sun- Kwan who corroborated Asoong's evidence at the Supreme Court on the trial of Shum Ahing, is not the name of either of the five men taken from Macao by Mr. Caldwell.

As to pará 22 on the same page, in which Mr. Caldwell speaks of the consistency of the statements of the Coolees so brought to you with that of the inforner, who Mr. Caldwell said had had no pos- aible means of concerting with the others to make up the story, you point out that, as it is proved by the evidence of J. Fernandes, of 1). Xavier, of F. B. da Luz, of C. G. da Silva, of Cheang Achan and of others, that the informer was a Coolec broker on his owu admission, the supposition that the story could not have been concerted fails; for, as a broker, Asoong had free access to all the barracoons, going in and out whenever he pleased;