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that the cruisers might become involved in some incident which would impinge on British sovereignty,
A consul in Hongkong could supervise the collection of duties less expensively and more efficiently, but their request was consistently opposed by the Hongkong Government and foreign merchants.
WHEN A BLOCKADE HITS OPIUM SMUGGLING
In 1874 a petition signed by eighteen Chinese merchants and the resolutions of a public meeting held by the European community in Hongkong were sent to England.
Both protested against what was termed "the blockade of Hongkong." They pleaded with Her Majesty's Government to take decisive action to stop what they believed to be the deliberate harassment of Hongkong by China.
The Chinese petition, drawn up with the assistance of Messrs. Caldwell and Brereton, solicitors, was originally handled in a hush-hush manner. It received no publicity and copies were not given to the press, though it was sent to a few influential residents.
When, about a month after the petition had been submitted, the editor of the China Mail saw a copy, he immediately drew the public's attention to it.
He questioned the secrecy which had surrounded it.
In that day suspicion was the usual reaction to activities within the Chinese community. The editor laid it down thus: "Either the Chinese are working with us or they are not. If they are, they must learn that the surest way of bringing their complaints to the notice of the executive is to make them as public as possible.”
The reason for avoiding publicity may simply have been to prevent the Chinese authorities from learning of it.
It was later stated that when they did hear, two mandarins were