Sessional_Paper_1916 — Page 83

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I am to ask you to be so good as to let me have a copy of the letter referred to, or, if you have not got one, to inform me whether you are reported correctly in the passage I have quoted.

I enclose a copy of the petition in order that you may see what it is that you were asked to sign and I should be obliged if you would return it to me with your reply.

The Honourable

Mr. E. SHELLIM.

I am, &c.,

CLAUD SEVERN,

Colonial Secretary,

HONGKONG, 16th March, 1916.

SIR,-I have to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 14th instant.

The Hon. Mr. H. E. Pollock without any application for my sanction. bas made use of my name in a manner which was not warranted by any conversation I had with him and has represented views which I do not remember giving expression to in a light favourable to his petition with a view of explaining the absence of my signature therefrom.

My personal views on the subject, dealt with in the petition, are not fully crystalized and I thought I made it clear to Mr. Pollock that I could not support any changes in the Government here without first being given time to submit them to those I represent at home.

I am, &c.,

DAVID LANDALE.

The Honourable

Mr. CLAUD SEVERN,

Colonial Secretary,

Hongkong.

HONGKONG, 16th March, 1916.

SIR, In reply to your letter of the 14th March, No. 2003/1915. I have the honour to inform you that I am correctly reported in the passage quoted by you.

I beg to point out, however, that my letter was supplementary to a con- versation I had with Mr. Pollock in which I expressed the view that some well considered concessions might well be made by the Government but I did not consider the present an opportune time to raise the question. My letter should be read entirely with reference to such conversation which did not refer in any way to the details of the petition or proposals which I had not considered and which it was impossible for me to study in the time then at my disposal.

I am emphatically of opinion that at this stage of the Great War in which the Nation is engaged, it is out of place to bring forward a question of the nature of the petition.

I am, &c.,

The Honourable

The Colonial Secretary,

Present.

E. SHELLIM.