THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 15TH MAY, 1875.
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21. The Commission share in the doubts expressed by the Acting Attorney General as to the existence of any
law which renders the vessel and her entire cargo liable to confiscation, because a package containing arms was found on board, the said law can; in the opinion of the Commission, only inean a "regulation" framed by the Hoppo to furnish pretexts on which to make seizures that would enrich himself and his employés.
22. The last class of cases which the Commission would refer to, is where the regular licensed boats belonging to this Colony engaged in supplying it with provisions are seized, and money extorted from them. An illustration of this class of harassing interference with the trade of the place will be found in the case of the two licensed junks, Nos. S. 33 and S. 197, (vide C. S. O. No. 2,775). The following remarks of the then Acting Harbor Master, on this point, are worthy of note; they are as follows:-
The confines of these waters are so infested with "This is the plight our junk people are in. "cruizers of every description that they never know when they are safe. They comply with nine de- "mands and then lose all they have in the world, because a tenth springs up from a totally unexpected
"source."
23. The Commission would urge that so long as the Hoppo's cruizers, augmented as they have been by his purchase of the Peng-chao Hai, are permitted to make Hongkong and its waters the basis of their operations for the so-called protection of Chinese revenue, the junk trade of the Colony, hither- to a highly flourishing one, must be seriously injured.
24. Junks inward or outward bound to or from this Port, must almost of necessity pass through The Commis- Chinese waters, the channel between British and Chinese territories being so narrow.
sion are of opinion, that this Government has the undoubted right to demand that any honest vessel carrying cargo to or from Hongkong, shall be at liberty to do so without paying duties to the Hoppo of Canton, except at the places of shipment or debarkation should these happen to be within his juris-
diction.
25. The Commission are of opinion that the action of the Hoppo, as disclosed by this enquiry, and which the native traders of the Colony complain of so bitterly, is aggravated by the employment by him of Europeans on board the blockading vessels. The Chinese attribute a great portion of the hardships to which they are subjected, to the Europeans, and a feeling of bitterness is engendered in the minds of the trading class against foreigners, which it is politic to avoid.
26. It appears to the Commission, as far as they can ascertain, that no British subject can be le- gally employed, according to Treaty, by an individual Chinese for the purpose of collecting revenue from Chinese traders, and, if their view is found by the Attorney General to be correct, they would suggest that the matter be at once brought to the notice of the Home Government.
27. That the Hoppo is merely a Farmer there can be no doubt, therefore it becomes a most ano- malous case, and one not heard of in any other country but China, that a Government Farmer should have the power of punishing defrauders of his revenue and confiscating their property without a first appeal to the regular Government tribunals.
28. While on the subject, although not strictly within the terms of their Warrant, they would call attention to the Chinese Customs Agencies established within the Colony. The names of these Agencies are know to the Commission, and the proof of their collecting duties is also in their hands. There can be no doubt that these Agencies assist the cruizers and stations outside in their operations against the commerce of the Colony, forming a portion of the meshes of the net with which the unfor- tunate junk trader is surrounded.
29. With reference to the steps to be taken to obtain redress, the Commission would, in the first place, suggest that Her Majesty's Government should endeavour, by diplomatic action, to prevail on the Government of China to remove altogether the Customs stations and cruizers from the neighbour- hood of this Island, and to arrange that duties be collected only at those ports or places at which there exists an export and import trade.
30. Junks going to, or coming from, distant ports, such as Formosa, and clearly shown by their papers to be bound from or to Hongkong, should not be interfered with, or molested at sea; indeed, a Proclamation of the Vice-Roy, forwarded to the Colonial Secretary by the present British Consul at Canton, in a letter dated February 8th, 1869, strictly forbids the search of vessels by Customs cruizers at sea, (vide Chamber of Commerce Report for May, 1869, forwarded herewith.) How this Proclama- tion comes to be ignored at present, the Commission are unable to understand.
31. Should the Chinese Government refuse to remove the stations and cruizers altogether, it might be urged upon them to remove them to a greater distance than they are at present, say, not nearer, in any case, than ten miles from any of the entrances to the harbor; this would set at rest all the irrita- ting and continually recurring disputes as to jurisdiction.
32. The Commission would regret if amelioration of the present state of affairs could not be ob- tained by diplomacy, but, failing that, they would suggest to His Excellency the Governor, that as the