CO129-402 - Governor Sir May - 1913 [7-8] — Page 292

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I have had a stone throw into my motor car as I

sat in it with my wife. On another occasion a

bundle of lighted crackers was throw at the vehicle

while we were in it. It struck the footboard. Other

minor missiles, such as orange peel and sticks, have

been thrown at the car also while I have been in"

it.

From the time of my arrival here up to the

end of the boycott assaults on the Police were of

weekly occurrence, They took the form sometimes

of attempted rescue of prisoners, on other occasione

of throwing missiles from verandahs at them. I took

very stringent measures to stop these and since the

lesson taught the Chinese population by the

suppression of the boycott, the assaults upon the

Police and the petty annoyances to which I was

personally subjected have ceased.

But without the signal victory which the

Government through the Boycott Ordinance, and

through it alone, achieved over the lawlessness,

aggressiveness, and conceit of certain Chinese

both in and outside the Colony, who imagined that

they and not the Hongkong Government were masters

here, the marked improvement in respect for

constituted authority would not have been effected.

Such is not my opinion alone. It is the opinion

of the whole of my advisers and of the entire

population. As a German missionary, who has worked

30 years among the Chinese and who used, at any rate,

to be much respected by them, put it to me the

other day We watched with anxious eyes the progress

of the boycott. So much depended on the issue.

Had

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