120
European Officer of the Imperial Chinese Customs, if stationed here, might claim to interfere, in certain cases, also with European ships. On the whole, many of our principal Merchants seem inclined to believe it better to bear the ill to which only Chinese junks are exposed, than to fly to other measures that might also affect European merchant ships.
But I make these remarks now only in passing, and to show that this question is not urgent. I shall address Your Lordship fully on the entire subject, when I shall have had the advantage of ascertaining fully the opinion of Sir Harry Parkes, and the probable views and action of the Chinese Government.
4.
The KaiKwan, or Hoppo, is the official head of the Revenue and Provincial Customs Departments of Southern China; and, in the old days before the first Chinese war, he was the Protector of the few Europeans who were then suffered