13
2
421
Je
Governor was good enough - peruse I have the honor to make the following further report.
2. The Expression "Blockade of Hong Kong" and the feeling of vexation engendered in the minds of merchants here both foreign and native were hardly to be accounted for by the presence in the vicinity of our waters of a number of Chinese Revenue Cruisers employed in the legitimate lot of protecting their Customs dues.
3. On the one hand the merchants alleged that commerce was crippled by the frequent detentions of and harassing searches made on the native craft frequenting this port, and that "squeezes" were exacted from various junk masters on pain of confiscation - Sir Brooke Robertson on the other hand denied that the Chinese had any other object in their Cruisers near Hong Kong than for "Collecting the duties of which heretofore the Government had been defrauded".
4. It was almost impossible to obtain from the Chinese leaders who were more immediately concerned a statement sufficiently definite and positive to be completely relied on, but