CO129-259 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1893 [5-8] — Page 559

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nor, as the result of the enquiries he has been able to make, am I more than justified in my opinion that an Enquiry by an independent Committee is an essential preliminary to any scheme of Retrenchment, and that private inquiries conducted wholly within the bosom of the Government itself, are inadequate, as shown by the decision of the Secretary of State directing a comprehensive enquiry, in spite of the strong protests of His Excellency the Governor that no such public enquiry was necessary or desirable, and that he was in possession of all needful information.

His Excellency might well have been surprised if I had consented to act on a Committee which, from its composition, must utterly fail to push any effective enquiry in any direction about which there may be any serious differences of opinion between the representatives of the public and of the Government. If I had done so, I should have exposed myself to a charge of inconsistency, having agitated for an independent enquiry and accepted something which, equally divided in its Members, lacked the power to push its investigation, and the independence that could give authority to its report and recommendations.

Of course, there might have been an anomaly in appointing a Committee on which I had not, at least, been asked to sit, but my refusal to take part in the proceedings of this Committee by the order precludes the appointment of an independent Committee of Enquiry. There are numbers of men in Hong Kong, perfectly independent of the Government, convinced as I am of the necessity of Retrenchment and of the need for a comprehensive enquiry by representatives of...