GAD
32
1
Imperil
Port of
£
trance into the Chinese Imp.
That all the Chinese traders,
I who frequent this front
smuggle,
we do not believe, for it
is certain they will evade this payment of duties, if there be inducement and opportunity to do so, but the
precautions that
other authorities
have taken in other
parts of the world
have been found effective, and we have no reason to believe they
will be found ineffective in China.
The trade of this Colony is not
as
has been
was fortified by smuggling, as early stated by Sir Rutherford Alcock, and the collection of duties on
the ... Camana etc)
of the Colony,
now attempted by the Canton Authorities, by the cordon of cruisers which has
been placed
round the Island, we
characterize as an interference
with the independence and
rights and privileges of the Colony.
10.
The
excesses
committed by the cruisers,
we believe
are not overstated in the
despatch upon which
this Memorandum is based, and
we have daily brought to our attention evidence of the serious injury
inflicted upon business by their oppressive
acts and
11.
by the terror they have inspired. Why Canton, with the sanction of
Her Majesty's Minister, should levy
exactions
upon
the trade of a British
possession
appears to
us grossly unjust and its
effect is already proving disastrous to the