CO129-259 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1893 [5-8] — Page 457

Sir,

Enclosure 9.

C. O.

15922

Hon: T. H. Whitehead to Captain Sterling. A.D.C.

Rad 18 SEP 53]

452

Hong-Kong 8th August 1893.

I have received your letter of the 5th instant

and have endeavoured to give it que consideration.

I am very sorry that you should have had the trou-

ble of again writing. I thought I had made it quite clear in

my letter of the 2nd instant, that I could not consent to

serve on the Commission as at present constituted. I said

or intended to say in the second last paragraph of that note

that if His Excellency could not see his way to the appoint-

ment of such a Commission as was unanimously asked for by

the Unofficial Members I felt prevented from taking part in

the proceedings of a Committee so composed that while barring

the way to a more effective enquiry in the future, it could

not hope to accomplish much in the present. It is with very

great regret that I find myself compelled to auhere to the

decision embodied in these few words, and I can only apolo0-

gise to His Excellency for the trouble Ihave given and thank

him for his considerate kinuness in permitting me to recon-

sider the matter a second time, and for his courtesy in com-

municating Mr. Justice Clarke's views on the subject.

There are two points in His Hondur's letter with

quite reference to which I cannot agree with him, and in which I

A

am afraid I uiffer from His Excellency also. I do not think

that