CO129-291 - Governor Sir Blake - 1899 [5-6] — Page 616

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Dear Sir,

Enclosure in W

OPY A

C.O.

17043

Li Long, 29th May, 189... & JUL 19

608

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23 124 LESS

There is a large Fan Ti Village near here in our neighbourhood (six English miles from our Mission Station Li Long) whose population of the lan Tang took a prominent part in the rout in Thai Pu and Ping Shan some weeks ago. Since our soldiers are in Sam Tshun the people there are preparing to drive them away. The last few days they sent invitations to large villages in their neighbourhood and collected a lot of money to engage men, who are now assembling with their weapons in Fan then. The rowdies there menace the Christians who are living in a Hakka village 2 English miles from Fan then. The Christians had to flee. This night the gathered rowdies in the region have a meeting in a large temple to arrange their plans.

I don't know how much is true of all the wild rumours which are afloat, but I heard it from trustworthy eye witnesses, hundreds of men with weapons on their way to Fan then. Everybody says the Chinese there are in earnest to stir up the people once more to engage you in war.

My two colleagues and our Chinese Pastor are at a loss what to do. After very secret consultations we thought it would be best to let you know what is going on in our neighbourhood. Since we are far away from the mandarin to whose jurisdiction Fan then belongs (Tung Kwong is a two days journey from here) we would kindly ask you to send word to HK that the Government immediately telegraphs to Canton or Tung Kwong that our mission station and the ...