CO129-391 - Acting Governor Claud Severn Governor Sir May - 1912 [7-8] — Page 288

Q

N: 281.

Sir,

45% 654

dr.

0.

77'S

281

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG, 12th. August, 1912.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt

of your telegram of the 18th. July, to which I replied as follows:-

"It should have been explained clearly that Section

*28 re-enacts Section 14 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1689. "Contracts are not signed in China or ifongkong for "British North Borneo or any other British Possessions".

2.

On referring to the correspondence on which

Sir F. Lugard's Despatch No. 84 of the 8th. Harch was based, I find that paragraph 5 was not intended to go in its present form. The Attorney-General proposed, and Sir F. Lugard agreed, that the para- -graph should be altered to read as follows:-

#6.

Section 28 re-enacts with what I consider to be

necessary safeguards the provisions of Section 14 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1889 and gives power to a properly accredited agent of the Government of a British possession to engage contract emigrants subject to the approval of the Secretary of State. The Section is retained in order to facilitate &c. &c. "

It is to be regretted that the paragraph was not altered before the Despatch was sent.

RIGHT HONOURABLE

LETIS HARCOURT, M.P..

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3.