CO129-478 - Public Offices & Others - 1922 — Page 771

My dear Grindle,

Oxford

16. 9. 22.

764

Youre of 15. 9.

The situation is much

worse than I anticipated. I thought that the. system which

I adumbrated in my despatch would be accepted by the Chinese,

though I knew they would'nt like it. It now appeare that

they are going to oppose it. This means that whatever we

do will be futile and, which is far more serious, it means that the Chinese are for the first time setting themselves

against the Government. That is the beginning of the end.

I told you the other day that I believed we should hold

Hong Kong for another fifty years. put it now at twenty

at the most.

I cannot make any suggestions as to procedure now.

My whole scheme rested on the co-operation of the Chinese,

With that co-operation things would have worked easily enough

Without it, we shall have to create some sort of machinery

ourselves. This, with the Chinese against us, means not

only enormous expense but enormous delay. Their first move

will be to dump the mui-tsai on the Government, and we shall

have many hundreds of girls handed over to us to provide for.

We can't do it unless we establish an orphanage or similar

institution.

There is no building in the Colony that could

be made to house even a hundred. We should have to build.

I do not know where we can find a site and even if we can

find one the erection of buildings will take at least two

years.

The