CO129-291 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [5-6] — Page 518

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with arsenic until he died of its poisonous effects, that those who suffered in this way at that time were innumerable that if a sick man was found in a house no matter how much the house was worth it was destroyed by fire and the houses adjacent to it closed, that the cruelties experienced were truly great and that if such proceedings are introduced into the area the people will not be able to survive them, that our Government is so benevolent and humane that every subject is provided for, that it will not endure the handing over to foreigners of hundreds of Lis of territory and thousands of its subjects to be cruelly treated

Your Petitioners having been made acquainted with these circumstances found them on enquiry to be true and can state that Chinese and British rule in their good and evil effects are as far removed from each other as heaven is from earth.

Your Petitioners therefore consider it their duty to represent the case in detail to Your Honour in addition to petitioning the higher authorities (at Canton) and present this joint petition through (Wong Kat) their proxy praying that your Honour will condescend to your sympathy by submitting it to your superiors so that they may memorialise the Throne with a view to preventing this irregular extension of the boundary and meeting the wishes of the people.

And Your Petitioners will ever pray. Dated Kwong Shu 25th. year 3rd. Moon 3rd. day,

(18th. April, 1899.)

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