478
Konses as
We may at innumerable points along the circumference, they are quite unable to cope with the possibilities of such a position and the ingenuity of such smuggler, and the result would be double loss - loss by the expense of Custom-Houses and loss by the non-receipt of the Duties they would fail to collect.
The only way to collect our revenue, with such a Colony so near our Coast, is to act on the centre itself (Hongkong), before they have got so far away from it as to be beyond control, and, if you will let us act at the centre itself (Hongkong), we undertake to reduce our action to a minimum, and make it as little felt as possible; if you don't consent to this, not only must we continue our present operations, but we must endeavour to supplement them and devise other means to fill up the interstices now existing.
That the action of China is falling to Hong Kong, I admit, but higher justice does more than uphold its legality; that the positions beyond