The Committee of the Chamber would respectfully represent that White British Government have not prohibited or in any way restricted the exportation to Hong Kong from British ports and dependencies of such articles as may be comprehended in the Proclamation. They not only, for instance, allow Saltpetre to be exported from Calcutta to Song-song, but they levy a duty upon it, and having benefited by this import, they throw the article upon the merchant's hands with the intimation that as soon as it has reached its destined port, he cannot be suffered to dispose of it in the only manner available to him.
If such a policy had for sufficient state reasons been determined upon, ordinary justice to individuals requires that some reasonable period of notice should have been given to the trade that their existing stocks might not be subjected to heavy loss, and that orders for additional supplies might be countermanded. By a recent Blue Book, it would appear that this measure has been adopted in the interests of the Government of China; but
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