CO129-429 - Public Offices & Others - 1915 — Page 361

No. 135/14.

28868

Prof REG 22 JUN 15

359

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

EONG KONG,

29th January 1915.

Sir,

D

In reply to Your Excellency's letter of this date I have the honour to inform you that early in this month the Reverend C. Bitzer applied on behalf of the Basel Hission, which is a German Swiss organisation carrying on missionary work on a large scale in the Kwangtung Province, to their Agents in Hong Kong, Messrs. Lowe, Bingham & Matthews, for certain funds, on deposit in the Chartered and Hong Kong and Shanghai Banks, to be remitted to him for the support of the seventy European Missionaries and their two hundred Chinese assistants at present working in the Province.

2. My legal adviser agreed with me that there was no objec- tion to acceding to this reasonable request, and I therefore authorized Messrs. Lowe, Bingham & Matthews to remit the sum of $ 5,000 to the Reverend C. Bitzer and to intimate to him that he might renew his application for an additional sum or suns later on.

3.

I have no reason to doubt that the Secretary of State for the Colonies would approve my action in this matter. I do not thereforepropose to trouble him with what would necessarily be a long and expensive telegram on the subject. But I will

if Your Excellency wishes it send a copy of your letter to him.

4.

I may add that the Secretary of State for the Colonies is aware that while members of the Basel Hission were resident in Hong Kong this Government permitted them to draw upon their funds in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank for their support.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your Excellency's most obedient Servant,

E. Major-General F.H. Kelly, C.B.,

(Signed) F.H. May, Governor, etc