______________________________________________________________________________________________

22 Sep 58 Peter Hong Kong Father ______________________________________________________________________________________________

22 September 1858

Hong Kong –

My dear Father

I am almost tired of writing, but I must sit down & say my say.

The fact is in all your letters you congratulate me & all that sort of thing on my wonderful luck, but I want to know how is all this to end & what are your serious intentions & wishes concerning me. I have explained to you or have endeavoured to do so, my real position here which is simply that I am merely an employee (partners they have already made) & tho’ by sticking to the thing I might eventually become a partner, still in the ordinary course of things it would not be before 15 years & then I should but be a slave.

We have two kinds of partners here. Ready made partners who are great swells & slave-partners who do all the work & then get abused for it. It is one of the latter I might be. I don’t say should, but might be, by good fortune, after 15 years.

Now what I want to know is seriously this. Do you wish me to go on in this way or do you wish to see me doing something. I shall be able after three or four years to live on my salary (which I cannot at present do) and shall be gaining my own livelihood. But that is no advance in life. I could do that at home. Then again, if you wish me to come home I am after all gaining comparatively little experience in business, for our transactions are so large that one person only sees one department of the business. To give an insight into business, I ought never to have found so large a house.

However do not suppose I am getting tired of the present (which I undoubtedly however am) & do not for a moment think that I wish to sacrifice prospects of future success to the desire of coming home (which I undoubtedly do not). I only put the thing in its real light before you & ask you to tell me seriously what you think.

Put my own desires out of the question. At least I have no desires because the desire of future success always counteracts the desire of present employment. I want to know seriously what you wish me to do & perhaps I may also almost say, at the same time what I may expect that you will do for me, for this too is a very material point.

I really do think – & I think my Mother will agree with me – that there should be a clear understanding on this point. Otherwise I am only apt to be placed in a false position. I think if you would confer with her upon the point & tell me my real position & what I may expect, it would be much better.

I have written a long letter to my Mother but I fear the strain in which it is written will rather frighten her. The times of late certainly have been very sad.

Your affect. Son

Peter G Laurie