}
213
of wrong doing before the authority
on board
the Revenue Cruiser, to which they professed to belong, and it did not appear to me that
or more
of these.
the constant presence of--on
Cruisers in the Colonial waters,
they took no action therei ffence that it
ANOS
held
to be - Gibraltar
so long.
ad
was the serious
bij gentlemen present
was mentioned as a · port-
from which under circumstances somewhat
analagous, Cruisers were excluded. I was unable
to offirm
or
deny the statement, but I expressed.
an opinion that if such exclusion were the
Aale
it
Avas
probably in accordance with a
special understanding between the Governments.
There was a reference made to, I think, Article 244 of the Treaty of Teen-tsin as protecting British Merchants against exaction
of higher duties than those prescribed by Tariff appended to the same Treaty. Fo
the
This
this I replied that the Treaty,
in the matter
of duty payments on cargo con cerned only
cargoes carried in Pritish bottoms and taxed
in the
Treaty
Port
I believe that I have now noticed every
but repeat
pouit brought forward and I can
that while admitting with regret-the embarassment that the present state of things brings with it, I
see no
objections excape from this unless
the Colony is prepared to suggest some arrangement
which the Chinese Government will accept as an
effective substitute for the present cordon - We
do the Chinese no
ce when we assume injustice
that Native Custom-houses, as uncontrolled as
those in the neighbourhood of Hongkong
well habitually levy more than is due upon
the funk trade. If a system of collection
- operation can be devised in which, by the co- of the Colony, the amount of revenue fairly
due