nations represented in Hongkong and in China, and that would be sufficient Except as regards the three I have above specified. The Americans have the largest trade next to ourselves, & their property and establishments in Hongkong are so great that quoad the Colony their interests may be considered identical with ours. Their Cooperation might be sought in carrying
out the convoy system, & when seeking it would do away in a great measure with the chance of their jealousy being roused. The Portuguese settlement of Macao can & I am convinced would lend the Hongkong Government invaluable assistance in carrying out such a plan as is suggested; its prosperity is much affected by the present prevalence of piracy. & its Governor Senor Amaral has in frequent conversations with myself on this very topic expressed an anxious wish that some great measure might be adopted for rendering the seas more secure
With
regard to the Chinese I would most earnestly press upon you Sir the fact, that, although nominally speaking all Chinese are subjects of the Emperor, yet in reality the
*
223
scores of islands which crowd along the face of the sea board & which are the haunts & nurseries of the present race of pirates belong in fact to no power at all & by a system of disarmament & repression of the nature described we should hardly by any possibility come into collision with any of the Chinese authorities. In the good work we cannot expect from so corrupt & weak a power as the Chinese Empire now is the most probable course it will adopt will be to ignore the matter altogether or accept it as an act of rapine. I propose therefore that a communication be made to the Chinese officials at each of the 5 ports that for the protection of trade the English propose to cause a general disarmament all along the coast & that they will keep on foot a force sufficient to make up to the honest trader the loss of self-defence he may thereby
suffer.
This is as much as need be done with a barbarian power & I hold the Chinese government to be barbarous in the fullest & strongest sense of the word.