CO129-412 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [7-8] — Page 228

1

No

CONFIDENTIAL.

3376/4/14

Jeant

220

HONGKONG.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

30th July, 1914.

#

Sw

gir,

With referance to paragraph 5 of my confidential

12424, Senpatch of the 12th of March, I have the honour to inform you

that on the 26th of March I invited the surviving Trustees and

the Committee of Management of the Sikh Temple to meet me when I explained to them that the General Officer Commanding and the Captain Superintendent of Police had reluctantly been obliged to put the Temple out of bounds for the members of the Garrison

and Police Force because it had been used not for religious purposes only, as provided in the lease of the land, but for political propaganda. I suggested that a new Committee of Management might be formed consisting of 1 representative for

sach 100 sikhs or Hindus to be approved by the Governor and to

be re-appointed annually, who should manage the temporal, distinguished from the religious, affairs of the Temple in accordance with regulations to be approved from time to time by the Governor; and said that if the Trustees and Committee were willing to accept these arrangements and to surrender the lease of the site of the Temple the General Officer Commanding and I

would remove the bann upon the Temple and would issue a new

lease conditioned as above.

2.

*.

The Trustees and Committee accepted these pro- posals willingly. The effect will be to place the representatives

of the Indian Garrison and of the Police in a considerable

majority on the Committee and their influence will for the

TER RIGHT HONOURABLE

LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,

•

800.7

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