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April 9, 1896.3
HỌN. T. H. WHITEHEAD ON THE AFFAIRS OF THE COLONY,
REPLY TO THE ADDRESS OF WELCOME.
Hongkong, January 20th, 1896. Sir-We have very much pleasure in hand- ing you the accompanying address of welcome from your fellow colonists, which sufficiently speaks for itself, without further comment from as-Yours faithfully,
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
undertook to forward the petition in due course. The bubonic plague developed at that -time, and soon thereafter attained grave dimen- sions, very largely in consequence of vast accumulations of filth which official negligence'
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“I am returning to Hongkong with the full assurance that the small concessions fore- shadowed by Lord Ripon, at the interview which His Lordship honoured me with on Saturday, 11th instant, will be granted in a generous spirit: These are two unofficial members on the Executive Council, and two more unofficial members on the Legislative Council. This is not what the people of Hongkong asked for, but it will strengthen the local Colonial Govern- ment and leave the casting vote with the Gover- nor. This small concession has taker's weight, 2- off my mind, &c., &c."
The following documents have been handed alone had permitted. The Sanitary Board could not be held to blame under the circum to ns for publication -
stances, as the Government had persistently withheld from the Board the adequate staff and machinery to carry on the necessary work and affect the pressing and urgently required sanitary reforms. Mr. Francis's time and energies were completely absorbed with the responsible and heavy duties devolving upon
The lecture which I delivered in February of him in his position as Chairman of the Perlast year on "The critical position of British manent Committee of the Board, and, in con- Trade with Oriental Countries under the Bequence, the forwarding of the petition was auspices of the Royal Colonial Institute well delayed. It did not reach England until 24th repaid the labour its preparation involved, inas- ADDRESS OF WELCOME TO THE Honourable September, 1894, when Parliament was in much as it proved to me a no mean education vacation, and the House did not resume its on one of the most important questions of the sittings until 5th February, 1895.
day, and provoked an exhaustive and weighty discussion.
(Ed.) Gro; B. DODWELL.
(8L) GEO. W. F. PLAYFAIR. To the Honourable T. H. Whitehead.
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T. H. WHITEHEAD,
To the Honourable
Thomas Henderson Whitehead,
Unofficial Member of the Legislative
Council, Hongkong, Sir-We, the undersigned residents in Hong- kong, beg to offer you a very hearty welcome on the occasion of your return amongst us.
We are well aware of the immense amount of time and trouble which, during your stay in England, you devoted to furthering the interests of the colony.
You left here on a well earned holiday, but as your energies were given up during almost the whole of that period to public work in our behalf, we wish, not only to tender you our thanks, but also to convey to you how highly we appreciate the able manner in which you desit with the subject of extended local self- government, and the more intricate subject of the trade of the Far East,
We believe that your speeches and publica tions, will bear fruit at no distant date; and we hope that you may continue to interest yourself in the public affairs of the colony so long as we have the privilege of counting you among our fellow-citizens.
(Here follow 280 signatures.)
HỌN. T. H. WHITEHEAD'S REPLY.
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I may here be permitted to remark that the Community is under great obligations to the members of the Permanent Committee of the Sanitary Board and to the self-sacrificing labours of the soldiers, sailors, and civilians who voluntarily battled with the disease, and for their invaluable services, for it was mainly their strenuous efforts and theirs alone which broke the neck of the plague.
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At the first meeting of Council after my return, I asked the Government for the corre spondence which had passed between the Home and Colonial Authorities, including the Colonial Secretary's exhaustive memorandum on our petition, but the Governor still withholds and refuses to publish the papers. From that day to this nothing further has been heard of your petition and no alteration whatever has made in the constitution of either Council.
Soon after the opening of Parliament Mr. Henniker-Heaton asked certain questions, and presented our petition to the Commons on 21st Permanent officials in Downing Street dis- March of last year. Mr. Henniker-Heston's like the growth of any influence calculated to endeavours on behalf of Hongkong were many decrease the powers and patronage they have and unceasing, his great services were most hitherto so long exercised and enjoyed, hence cheerfully rendered, and he thoroughly deserves their determined opposition to the British your hearty and most grateful thanks. At the residents here being conceded any share in the Honourable Member's special request our administration of the ordinary and local affairs memorial was read by the clerk of the House, of the Island, and the cordial support they Sir Reginald Palgrave, though such a course is have received from the authorities in the contrary to the usual practices of the House.
On the same evening I addressed a letter to colony. The combined action of the home and colonial officials has, for the present, un- the Times, advocating to the beat of my ability doubtedly blocked the progress of our reform your just and reasonable claims, but owing to movement, which had the support of the vast pressure upon its columns it could not then spare majority of Hongkong's best men, including space. Shortly afterwards, however, a brief those who have a close acquaintance with local leader appeared in its columns in connection needs and requirements. I refer more par- with our petition, containing insecurate and mis- ticularly to men of the calibre of Mr. Thomas leading statements. I thereupon asked for a Jackson, who was among the first to sign the fair field, and appealed to the Times and the petition, and who has rendered very important traditions of that great paper for a full and service to the colony over a long period of years. patient hearing. The Colonial Editor granted I well remember his informing me at the time me several meetings, mentioned that they re- that after careful perusal of the petition he garded their information as reliable when their considered it a very moderate and a very able editorial was written, and that at the Colonial document, and that he did not see how any in- Office it was understood the Home Government dependent man could have any objection to sup- had decided to grant two more unofficial mem-porting it. That the opinions and wishes of bers on our Legislative Council. I was led to believe that if a condensed letter was sent in, the Times would endeavour to find space for it, and this, dated 10th April last, appeared in their issue of the 16th of that month."
Lord Ripon, then Colonial Minister, granted me three interviews, and at the first of these I understood from him that two more unofficial members would be appointed to the Legislative Council. At a later meeting His Lordship seemed less decided, but he promised that two unofficial members would be appointed to the Executive Council. He then further pledged himself to most favourably reconsider our claim for the appointment of two more unofficial members to the Legislature.
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Hongkong, 31st March, 1896. Dest Sirs-Your letter of 20th January last, handing me an address of welcome from my fellow residents, was duly received, but pressure of business has, I greatly regret, unavoidably prevented my sooner acknowledging its receipt. The community's cordial expression of thanks, and appreciation of my efforts when in England on behalf of the colony, and endea vours to obtain for the people their right to hare some share in the administration of their communal affairs, are deeply gratifying. They were specially acceptable at the time of their receipt, as I had then been subjected to what, I am sorry to say, appeared to me and to many others to be a deliberately prepared, un- expected, and utterly unprovoked attack made upog me in Council in December last, by His Excellency the Governor and by the Colonial Secretary, because I endeavoured to obtain for the members of Council and for the public information on public affairs to which they were entitled and which the Government should not withhold, but should communfeste unasked. Will you bear with me while I try to give a brief history of the petition to the House of On the 9th of May I had the honour of Commons. It aimed at obtaining a reasonable addressing the Members of the Colonial Party share of local government, so far as was consis-in one of the Committee rooms of the House of tent with Imperial interests. Such a concession Commons on the subject of the Petition, and would have given the desired control over local | it is gratifying to know that we have the earnest and municipal matters, as well as a consultative sympathy and warm support in our endeavours voice on Imperial questions, but such rights were to be subject to the Governor's veto, the paramount control resting with the Imperial Government. These privileges are enjoyed by other Crown Colonies, of far less importance than Hongkong, viz., Malta, Cyprus, Mauritius, British Honduras, and others. If conceded to Hongkong and subject to the Governor's veto, they could be no more dangerous here than the rights extended to the colonies before-mentioned, or to the much greater ones of self-government in Cape Colony, where also there is an over whelming preponderance of the native element.
On my departure from Hongkong for Europe “On the eve of my return to the Far East in May, 1894, further signatures were being vid America and Canada, I feel it my duty to sdded to the copies lying at various public again thank you most heartily for your unvarying places in the colony, and Mr. Franõis, "Q.C., | kindness to me during my stay in this country.
for reform of many Members of Parliament, including Sir John Gorst, Mr. Henniker Heston, Sir George Baden Powell, General Sir J. Bevan Edwards, Mr. Arnold Foster, Mr. W. W. McArthur, Junior Lord of the Treasury in the late Government, Mr. E. R. P. Moon, Mr. J. F. Hogan, the Secretary of the Colonial Party in the House, and others.
also saw
Mr. Sidney Burton, M.P., Under Secretary for the Colonies in the last Parliament, repeatedly, and before leaving home I wrote to him as follows on 18th May last.
"Dear Mr. Burton,
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such men--the chief mainstays and pillars of the colony-should have been thwarted is to be deplored, but the seed which has been sown, though it may temporarily appear to have fallen on stony ground, will yet bring forth fruit in season. The worst feature is that we are unable to ascertain upon what grounds the local Govern- menthave opposed our petition or for what reasons the Colonial Office staff have joined forces with them. There is an absolute refusal to pro- duce the correspondence, which disables us from meeting the arguments against us, either by denial, by explanation, or by concession. In spite, however, of temporary discouragement there is reason to hope for some success so long as the conspicuously able and enlightened Mr. Chamberlain, a man of action and a man of thought, a real living man, fills the post of¿ Colonial Minister,
Hongkong was created a Crown Colony (in. 1841, and Captain Elliot, its first Adminis trator, wisely and rightly recognised that Hongkong could be made to prosper only by keeping sacredly inviolate its character as a free port, and by governing the colonists on principles of constitutional liberty. It is to be regretted that Captain Elliot was called away for other service before he could give full effect to the principles on which he established the Government, and which unfortunately have not- been continued.
There are increasing and almost daily, proofs of the pressing and absolutely urgent necessity for a form of Government which will yield the British residents some voice in respect of their communal affairs. Had this been granted in bygone years it is possible that the legacy of insanitation throughout the city which the pre- sent generation has fallen heir to might have
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