CO129-291 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [5-6] — Page 554

No. 62.

C. O.

16557

RECO

REG? 27 JUN 19

British Consulate,

Canton, May 16, 1899.

546

Sir,

In continuation of my No.55 of the 9th instant, I

have now the honour to enclose translation of a despatch from

the Viceroy in reply to mine requesting him to depute a spe-

cial Weiyüan to deal with the case of the murder of the mes-

senger Tang-Cheung.

I gather that the Viceroy considers that the arrest

and punishment of the murderers should be left to the Local

Authorities, and I have accordingly furnished him with trans-

lations of all the documents bearing on the case, and request-

ed him to strictly enjoin upon them to exert themselves to ef-

fect the arrests as soon as possible. I have however pointed

out that the entrusting of the case to the Local Authorities,

who are already overburdened with business, is not such a sa-

tisfactory course as that of placing it in the hands of a spe-

cial Weiyüan who has no other affairs on hand.

I have &c.

(Signed) R. W. Mansfield,

Consul.

The Honourable

The Colonial Secretary,

Hong Kong.