Aug. 21.
Tr is not easy to feel that the Hongkong Government cuts a particularly handsome figure in its dealing with Mr. Eric Moller, after reading the long but intensely interesting statement by the latter which we publish to-day. The Hongkong Government, as we understand the position, has appealed to "instructions from Home'' as its excuse, and this explanation was suspected by many people after the winding-up meeting of Moller & Ca. and alluded to by us as a possibility in our comment on that meeting. But it is clear from the correspondence which Mr. Moller now publishes that '"'instructions from Home"' are not a big enough shield to save Hongkong from all blame. Exactly what the instructions were and how worded we do not know. But there is quite enough in the Hongkong Government's assurances to Mr. Moller, given in the letters of its own lawyer, to. show that it was morally committed to him a very long way. If the instructions from Home bade it disregard those pledges, no doubt in ignorance of them, did Hongkong ever represent to the Colonial Office that to carry out orders as received would mean injustice to Mr. Moller and the tarnishing of its own good name?
Argument might be protracted indefinitely over what constitutes ''purposes connected with the war and the protection of the Colony'? and whether such purposes might include carrying coal from Chinwangtao and sugar from Java. The real strength of Mr. Moller's position appears to us to rest on the original letter of March 13, 1918, in which the Hongkong Government informed him of its intention to requisition his ships, on the assurances given him by Mr. Wakeman, the Crown Solicitor, prior to the passing of the Indemnity Bill, and on the money clause eventually inserted in that Bill. Of the letter of March, 1918, we would say that it certainly appears to bear out~Mr. Moller's contention that, in view of - its general tone, ''the only responsible party to whom we (i.e. Moller & Ca.) can look is the Hongkong Government.'' This feeling is further supported by the letters from Mr. Wakeman.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.