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ay objeted by them. to an reasonable grounds We have no right to suppose that the real instructions of the Cheusen go beyond the repression of smuggling, or at most the squeezing of their countrymen. But their words do.
The proclamation is confessedly levelled against persons purchasing opium in Hongkong & Macao; and it states that "All traders after purchasing opium (in Hongkong & Macao) are to proceed to the nearest tax station and report their goods for payment of the tax." And from what follows it would seem that this proclamation extends to opium on its way to Whampoa, Canton and Swatow." I think that this brings the case within the community as Hongkong have a right to expect better evidence than the glass of an interpreter that it is not intended to interfere, in Chinese Waters with British-owned or with British merchandise really on their way to a Foreign Port.
MINUTE PAPER.
On the other hand it is clear that what the Hongkong people are anxious about is tenable objection in that the words of the proclamation menace the legitimate trade but tenable apprehension that effectively it is all meant to interfere with smuggling.
II. Under these circumstances the Secretary of State for the Colonies has to take care that, in correspondence with the Foreign Office, he gives just and able protection to the Governor & the Colony so far as they have a just matter of complaint, but gives them no hope of receiving such protection when it is not just & reasonable. It will not do therefore, I think, to repress what is unreasonable, without an effective protest against...