Sessional_Paper_1916 — Page 85

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Enclosure 4 (b).

No. 2003/1915.

PRINCE'S BUILDINGS,

HONGKONG, 22nd March, 1916.

SIR,— Your letter to me of the 18th instant did not reach my office till the 20th (on which day I was absent from the office) and I now beg leave to reply to it and to its inclosures, and I beg to request you to kindly transinit this letter of mine to the Right Honourable The Secretary of State for the Colonies, at the same time as you forward to him your letter to me of the 18th instant and its inclosures.

2. With regard to the third paragraph of your said letter I beg leave respect- fully to point out that the request contained in my letter to you of the 9th instant was not a request that all Despatches from the Governor to the Secretary of State on the subject of the Petition should be published, though I should, if I may be permitted to say so, welcome such publication, but my request was, in fact, for something different, namely, that "in justice and fairness to the Petitioners and their cause, I may be furnished with copies of all Despatches and of all inclosures thereto which are sent by His Excellency the Governor or the Hongkong Govern- ment to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies with reference to or in any way connected with the Petition "

3. I am much obliged to you for forwarding to me copies of correspondence which has passed between Mr. Landale and Mr. Shellim and the Chinese Members of Council and yourself and beg to say as follows :—

(1) With regard to Mr. Landale's letter to you of the 16th instant, I adhere to and repent the statements which I made in paragraph of my covering letter, of the 9th instant, to the Secretary of State, because those statements are absolutely true. I may add that Mr. Landale never gave me to understand that he could not sign the Petition (of which I left a copy with him for perusal) without first referring the matter home, and that the only reason which he gave me for not signing the Petition is the reason which I have quoted in paragraph 4 of my said covering letter.

As Mr. Landale did not ask me to treat what he said to me as confiden- tial, I cannot admit that there was any impropriety on my part in quoting him, or that there was any necessity for first obtain- ing his sanction.

(2) With reference to Mr. Shellim's letter to you of the 16th instant, in which he seeks to qualify what he wrote to me by a previous verbal conversation, I beg leave to state that, at the only verbal conversation which I had with him on the subject, he asked me to leave a copy of the Petition with him (which I did) and told me that he would put his views into writing and send them to me, which he did on the following day, and he admits that I have correctly quoted to the Secretary of State what he (Mr. Shellim) wrote to me.

(3) With regard to the Chinese Members of Council, the question arose, while I was discussing a draft of the Petition with them, as to whether the Chinese should be included in the Petition, and the Chinese Members said they had better be omitted. Accordingly, when the Petition was printed in its final shape and ready for signature, I did not invite them or any of the Chinese to sign the Petition, which was not sent to any Chinese Club, Institution or Store. Moreover the Petition expressly states, in its terms, that it is a Petition by British Residents" and it was, therefore, not open, (as you suggest in your letter under acknowledgment) for any one to sign who might wish to do so The Petition of 1894, on the other hand, was, by its terms, open to signatories of every Race.

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I am, &c.,

H. E. POLLOCK.

The Honourable

Colonial Secretary.