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Provinces of China, Hongkong is simply a port of call or tran- shipment. We, therefore, hope that you will not permit people at home to glue their eyes exclusively upon Manchuria and the country round about Peking and Tientsin and the Yangtse Valley in oblivion of the considerable commercial British interests which exist in the 3 Southern Provinces, and which, if our Fleet is not promptly reinforced, may possibly be seriously imperilled.
Starting out with the preliminary observation that, in order to be in a position to lay down with any weight any policy whatever, it is imperatively necessary that our Pleet out here should be substantially strengthened as we have re- commended above, we would suggest the following lines of policy as worthy of being pursued:-
1st. We should endeavour by every means in our power, short
of undertaking the actual administration, to bring about the establishment of a stable reformed Government, honestly administered, and every sup- port should be given to individual Viceroys who ..show any capacity for honest and liberal government. 2nd. We would suggest that one of the most useful methods
of bringing pressure to bear on the Central Govern- ment would be to shift the capital to Nanking. Peking has been clearly proved, by the events of the last few months, to be dangerously inaccessible, even in summer.
3rd. We must see the finances of the Chinese Empire put
on a proper footing, either under an International
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