CO129-302 - Public Offices - 1900 — Page 687

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of the troubles at Tientsin and Peking, Her Fajesty's

Government are despatching forces to guard the valley

of the Yangtze and to enforce order in the Forth, and

we have no doubt that the troops now on their way from

India will be sufficient for the purpose.

But there

appears to be no adequate provision for securing the

peace of the Southern provinces and for the protec-

tion of our interests on the North and West Rivers and

in Yunnan. The two regiments said to be cording to

garrison Hongkong are barely sufficient for that pur-

pose. No European battalion is coming;

only native

not the

We have a

infantry regiments from Madras and Bengal

very best material for a place like this.

very large Chinese population and a very restless one.

Half the criminals from the neighbouring provinces

find shelter here. We are liable to sudden out-

breaks of superstition and fanaticism, to say nothing

of deliberate uprisings for the purposes of plunder.

Crimes of violence have been very frequent of late.

Witness the proceedings, recently, at Aberdeen, o:

of

which