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Could anything be plainer, more particularly from this last mentioned para- graph, than that the Imperial Government intimated that they intended during these three years to expend £280,000 per annum on an increased garrison out of which they requested the Colony to contribute £40,000?

3. But now the War Office takes a different line. The letter of the 14th of July insinuates that the increased contribution is not asked for so much because we are to have an increased garrison, but because the Colony's revenue has consider- ably augmented since the year 1863, and because an intention, then announced, to increase the Military Contribution at the end of five years was never carried out.

These might have been very good reasons for requesting the Colony to increase its contribution, and had they been straightforwardly and undisguisedly submitted to the Legislature, I doubt not that the Un-official Members would have given them that impartial consideration which they are at all times prepared to give to proposals emanating from Her Majesty's Government.

But these were not the grounds upon which the Council were asked to vote the additional money.

The real reason was, and there can be no attempt to dis- guise it, that the garrison would be increased during the three years particularly referred to, whereas there seems to be little chance of any substantial increase this year or indeed within any limited period.

4. I will not further allude to the unfortunate error which was contained in the appendix to Your Lordship's Despatch, unintentional as it was on Your Lord- ship's part, more than to remark that it was one which not unnaturally tended to mislead the Colony in an important matter of this description.

Whatever may have been decided by the War Office previous to the Despatch being written, should have been represented to Your Lordship in such unmistak- able terms as would have enabled Your Lordship to unequivocally state the grounds

upon

which a considerable demand was to be made upon the tax-payers of this country.

5. I venture to say that by far the best way to avoid a constitutional crisis or indeed any other Governmental difficulty in this Colony, where I have found the Un-official Members of Council to be gentlemen of shrewd intellect, and pos- sessing no political or partisan desire to oppose a Government ineasure except on its merits, is for the Imperial Government to submit such measures as may be deemed necessary in a frank and open manner. Opinions may of course differ and occasions will no doubt arise when officials in a Crown Colony may, through the necessity of their position, be arrayed on one side while the Non-officials will be found on the other. But in Hongkong this contingency rarely happens, and is still less likely to do so if the full and clear intention of Government is sub- mitted to the Un-official Members, instead of an aspect of the case, which, however unintentionally, may distort the true object of the measure.

I have the honour to te,

My Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient,

humble Servant,

F. FLEMING.