CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 598

losure

Inclosure 4.

Inclosure 5.

592

3.

The former of these bodies had on the 17th.

instant communicated to me the telegrams, urging the impera-

tive necessity for dealing promptly and decisively with the

question, which they sent on that day to the Foreign Office

and also through Sir Thomas Jackson to Your Lordship and to

the London Chamber of Commerce, and they had expressed a

hope that I would support the views contained in those

telegrams "as unless prompt action be taken an important

branch of the trade of this Colony will be seriously threat-

ened". I enclose for convenience of reference a copy of

the telegram to the Foreign Office; the other was a repeti-

tion of the same message.

4.

I also enclose the text of the telegram

which was sent on the 16th. by the Hongkong Branch of the

China Association to the head office in London.

On the

21st. this Branch held a meeting in public to further dis-

cuss the matter. Annexed is a corrested report of that meet-

ing at which all the principal British firms in Hongkong

were represented. The address with which Mr. Murray

Stewart, the Chairman, submitted to the meeting the resolu-

tion which was unanimously passed at its close temperately

put forward the circumstances which had led up to and made

possible the outrage of the 13th. instant, and then placed

the