CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 211

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been present, as I could easily have acted as interpreter,

but, in any case, that constitutes absolutely no excuse

for keeping me in the dark as to the negotiations which

ensued, seeing how intimate the connection between the

Colonial Government and this office must of necessity be.

Nor did it constitute any excuse for humiliating me in the

eyes of my colleagues and the Chinese. No official inti-

mation, for instanco, having been given to the French Con-

sular Representative at Hongkong of an intention to include

the two French steamers in a scheme of placing detectives

on all river steamers, when my French colleague here was

approached by the Chinese on the subject he telegraphed

to his Minister and then demanded explanations from me.

Again, I was at the time endeavouring to have removed

certain vexatious restrictions, imposed on river steamers

at the instance of the Governor General by the Imperial

Maritime Customs, and when it was suggested on my part

that difficulties might be overcome by means of travelling

detectives, the answer was that that point had already

been arranged with the Hongkong Government. I venture to

think