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Sir,

No. 11.

Copy of Despatch from Sir H. Robinson to the Secretary of State for the

Colonies.

Hong Kong,

7th September 1864.

It is my duty to bring to your notice the proceedings which have taken Inclosures place here with reference to the demand made by Her Majesty's Government A to E. upon this colony for a military contribution of 20,0001. per annum, and the state of public opinion upon the subject.

2. Upon the receipt of your despatch No. 88, of the 25th June last, announcing the definite decision of Her Majesty's Government as to this question, I at once included the sum demanded in the Estimates and Appro- priation Ordinance for next year, then awaiting submission to the Legislative Council; and in explanation of the item, laid at the same time before the Council, in accordance with your permission, the entire correspondence in the matter.

3. Shortly after the publication of the correspondence, a very strong feeling arose throughout the entire community as to the unfairness of the proposal, and a public meeting of the inhabitants was held on the 23rd ultimo to protest against the measure. The meeting, I am informed, was the largest and the most respectably attended ever assembled in the colony, and represented the entire British and foreign commercial, and non-official community of the place. The proceedings were marked by complete unanimity, and the chief grounds of the protest agreed to were contained in the first resolution, which "adopted, to the fullest extent, the arguments which had been brought before the Duke of Newcastle, by both Mr. Mercer and myself, in support of our assertion, that the presence of troops here is unnecessary for any purely colonial object."

4. The 5th instant was the day fixed for the second reading of the Appropriation Ordinance, and upon the forenoon of that day, before the assembling of the Council, a Committee, nominated by the public meeting, waited on me to present an official record of the proceedings of the meeting, and also a petition, signed by 443 British and foreign residents, requesting me to forward to you the accompanying memorial, respectfully urging the relinquishment of the demand for military contribution, and, further, praying me to withdraw the item of 20,000l. from the Estimates for next year, until your reply to the memorial should be received.

5. The Committee, at the same time, informed me that memorials to a similar effect from the Chamber of Commerce, and from the native Chinese community, were in course of signature, and would be forwarded in time for transmission by the out-going mail.

6. In reply, I informed the Committee that all the papers presented to me by them should be duly transmitted for your consideration, but that I could not consent to withdraw the item of 20,000l., as requested from the Estimates for 1865, the passing of which either could not any longer be delayed. At the same time, I pointed out to the Committee that, in a Crown colony like this, the ultimate decision upon such a question rested entirely with Her Majesty's Government, independent of any conclusion which might be arrived at in the Local Legislature.

7. I felt that I could not, consistently with my duty, arrive at any other decision. I had been desired by you to consider the question "as definitively settled by Her Majesty's Government." The reasons advanced in the public memorial for the relinquishment of the demand were not new, but precisely those urged by myself, in my letter to Sir Frederick Rogers of the 21st May 1863, which the public meeting adopted as its own, and, although, that letter has never been replied to, or its receipt acknowledged, and, although, as

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