CAB7-1 — Page 179

Page 179

Page 179

194

and correspondence relating thereto, are required for the use of the Intelligence Depart- ment of this Office, and will be kept strictly confidential, under proper safeguards.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

RALPH THOMPSON.

No. 346.

Foreign Office to Colonial Office.

(Secret.) Sir,

Foreign Office, October 17, 1878. WITH reference to your letter of the 26th August last,* inclosing copies of corre- spondence with the Governor of Hong Kong relating to the possibility of utilizing that Colony as a recruiting-ground for raising Chinese regiments for the Queen's service in India or elsewhere, I am directed by the Marquis of Salisbury to transmit to you the accompanying letter from Sir Thomas Wade, whom his Lordship has consulted upon this subject; and I am to request that, in laying the inclosed letter before Sir M. Hicks Beach, you will state that his Lordship entirely concurs in the views expressed by Sir Thomas Wade on the question.

I am further to request that Sir Thomas Wade's letter may be returned, which, with your letter above referred to, has been communicated to Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India.

I

am, &c.

(Signed)

T. V. LISTER.

Inclosure in No. 346.

(Confidential.) My Lord,

London, September 30, 1878.

IN accordance with your Lordship's desire, I have carefully considered the suggestion contained in the correspondence inclosed in the Honourable Robert Meade's letter of the 26th August, namely, that Hong Kong might be employed as a recruiting-ground for raising Chinese regiments for service in India or elsewhere.

The Colony, it would appear from a recent Report of the Colonial Defence Committee, has a police force numbering 650 men, of whom 110 are European, 176 Indians, and 340 Chinese, and it seems to have been thought possible that the Gun Lascar Force might be supplemented by Chinese enlisted in the Colony, and that a battalion of such Chinese might be formed there. Colonel Moggridge, late Commanding Royal Engineer in Hong Kong, is of opinion, says the Report, that they would willingly take service and would be reliable.

I have no doubt that they would readily take service, but I should be sorry to see a large force of Chinese employed in Hong Kong. They could certainly not be relied upon if there were any misunderstanding between the Chinese Government and our own. Sup- posing that there are now as many as 130,000 Chinese, the number named by Governor Hennessy as "resident," who, consequently, may be in some sort regarded as the subjects of Her Majesty, the kindred of all these people belong to the coast districts, and at a moment's notice the pressure of the Canton Government would compel them to return to China. Their families would otherwise be compromised. In the troubles arising out of what was known as the lorcha "Arrow" affair, in 1856-57, some 80 per cent. of the servants of the community were recalled to their villages; the shopkeepers also. The latter, if people of substance, paying heavily towards the expense of operating against us.

Even in times of peace I should look for plenty of desertion if discipline were strict, and no deserter would ever be restored to us by the Chinese Government, which, even for Colonial purposes, is not likely to view the formation of Chinese battalions in Hong Kong with any favour.

There is another objection to recruiting in the Colony. Governor Hennessy relies, if I do not mistake his meaning, upon the Chinese who pass through the Colony to the number of 700,000 a-year. These are, beyond all doubt, subjects of China, and I feel sure that their enrolment as troops, within two miles of the shore of China, would soon provoke remonstrance.

I am opposed, therefore, to enlistment at Hong Kong, or to the employment of Chinese as soldiers, except within very narrow limits, in the Colony.

On the other hand, at a distance from the Colony I should be heartily glad to see them

* No. 312 A.

Page 179

Page 179

Page 179