CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 622

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direct a lengthy denunciation of the paper with a re-

quest for its prosecution. As such a case appeared to

า

come under the 75th section of the 1904 Order in Council

I sent the articles (with translations) to the Crown

Advocate and also desired the Viceroy to bring the

murder society to the notice of the Hongkong Government

through his colleague at Canton.

I now learn that the Chinese editor has been dis-

missed for drunkenness and because his rash articles

frightened a local Chinese who holds most of the shares.

Even admitting the advantage of affording protec-

tion to legitimate Chinese enterprises in the present

state of native law courts, I submit that the Hongkong

Government might fairly be asked to insist that a com-

pany proposing to function in China should be always

under a British managing director so as to prevent

conflict of jurisdiction in case the company is involv-

ed in legal proceedings. As matters stand at present

we may incur odium for acts by the alien agents of

Hongkong Companies over whom we can exert no effective

control.