688702-1878-China-Famine-Relief-Fund-Correspondence- — Page 1

DIE

SOFT

TQUI MAL

MON

DROIT

› THE HONGKONG

Government Gazette.

No. 30.

Published by Authority.

VICTORIA, SATURDAY, 27TH JULY, 1878.

CHINA FAMINE RELIEF FUND.

The following correspondence is published for general information.

By Command,

Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 27th July, 1878.

VOL. XXIV.

J. M. PRICE, Acting Colonial Secretary.

To His Excellency

SHANGHAI, June 29th, 1878.

Honourable JOHN POPE HENNESSY,

Governor of Hongkong,

&c.,

&c.

SIR,-Kng the deep interest

stricken district of th T on the subject

You will

&c.,

Excellency has taken in the work of relief for the famine 'hina, I beg, as Chairman of the Shanghai Committee, to address you

arrd from the detailed reports of the Catholic and Protestant Missionaries, who have so nobly devoted themselves to the work, that the funds placed in their hands have been of the greatest service, and that the measures adopted by them in various parts of the Country have been most effective for the alleviation of the wide spread misery: you will also have learned that abundant rains have at length fallen throughout most of the famine districts, so that there is good reason to believe when the autumn harvests are reaped, the horrors of t amine will be greatly at an end, and its intensity so far abated, that the native authorities will be sufficiently able to cope with it. Between the present time and the autumn, however, a most critical period has to be passed, and both classes of Missionaries in the field are most pressing in their appeals for further assistance to enable them to continue the systems of relief which they have organized, and without which they assure us the fruits of their labours and expenditure must to a great excent be sacrificed.

In this emergency, it is with the deepest regret we find ourselves unable fully to meet the urgent calls thus made upon us. Contributions from Great Britain, on which we have chiefly depended, have recently fallen off materially, and local sources of supply are well nigh exhausted.

Under these circumstances, while thanking you most gratefully for the kind and liberal response you were pleased to make to our former appeal for assistance, we venture to make a second application, hoping that your Excellency may be induced to recommend the appropriation of a further sum from the funds of the Colony, for the charitable work we have at heart, as special help at the present time would be most opportune and accomplish a very large amount of good.

I remain,

Sir,

Your Excellency's most obedient Servant,

W. S. WETMORE,

Chairman of the

China Famine Relief Committee.