6
505
of the inclosures in his despatch, that the object of the new Regulations was to prevent the evasion of the Lekin, or opium tax, payable by Chinese traders on the coast at various places of Kwantung, which is a different tax from the import duty leviable under the treaty of Tientsin on British merchants importing opium into any of the Treaty Ports. The Governor of Hongkong would seem to have been misled by the general terms of the Proclamation which requires "all traders" after purchasing opium to proceed to the nearest tax station and report their goods for the payment of tax", as he states in his despatch to the Duke of Buckingham of 23 July that he cannot find that the Proclamation makes any distinction between Native and foreign-owned Vessels, between Vessels bound for any open Treaty Ports and other destination," and he goes on to observe that "the Vice Roy's Proclamation insists apparently.