18.
as
no
official Commercial Representative
19
237
!
Official
can
obtain
any
amount...
of China resides here,
has the
least pretension to inspect manifests,
give
clearances
or
certify to the correctness
generally of a Chinese vessel's papers. Therefore the abuses, which would spring from the system cannot at present be developed. There
and there is
may
be
already much objectionable espionage, and frequent squeezing and exactions levied
from residents here by inquisitorial and
even
we
more stringent powers exerted
on their relatives and property on the Mainland. These cannot be better
described than in the 13 Paragraph of the inclosed Memorial, but they already exist, and at this moment the Canton authorities are obtaining
information as to residents here.
18.
It must, therefore, be conceded that
such evils appear inseparable from the
close vicinity of Hongkong to the Mainland,
places of
a distance in some
scarcely 200 yards, but the Memorial
does not sufficiently point out that
a class of evils specially connected with the appointment of a Consul from
which is perfectly avoidable
a cause,
would be deliberately introduced by Her Majesty's Government.
19.
A Chinese Agent,
whether native-born
or not, but in either case
surrounded by an intriguing and corrupt
native Staff, could only be checked by