take no activo part in the proceedings and that the public
and pross should be excluded.
The Consul made it quite clear that the case could
only be tried by Portuguese law and he explained that as
this was a preliminary enquiry, as for as his Court was
concerned, and not a trial, the public and press could
not be admitted.
I should here mention that in the first draft of his
reply to the Viceroy M. de Moraes refused absolutely to
reopen the case and criticised in strong terms the action
of the Chinose Authorities, the Self Government Society
and the Press in connection with the incident. It was only
after much persuasion on my part that he was induced to
reconsider his refusal and modify, to some extent, the
strictures he had passed on the conduct of the Chinese
Authorities.
On Decombor 2th. the Viceroy went another despatch
to the Consul, in which His Excellency, after an extremoly
one-sided review of the facts of the case, reiterated hip
dormand for a joint public enquiry.
This
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