billages on the mainland of China. That it appeared, however, to your Lordship that while it was very desirable to accommodate the carriage of passengers belonging to vessels of that class to residents in the Colony, the enforcement of a penalty against any such vessel which might arrive in the Colony with a greater number of passengers than the local Law permits was hardly consistent with international practice and might be considered a measure of doubtful legality.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have the honor to report that vessels of every nationality arriving in the waters of a British Colony are required to obey the municipal laws in force in that Colony; and that if the 6th section of the Ordinance here in question is allowed to become the law of Hong Kong, no nation will have any right to complain of the enforcement of its provisions, unless the restriction thereby imposed upon the navigation of small steamers is an infringement of some subsisting Treaty.
We have the honor to be, My Lord, your Lordship's most humble servants,
Mishard Baggallay
John Bolker
€2 Treas