Enclosure 4.
13146
RECD
REGP 4 JUL 87.
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Memorandum by the Acting Chief Justice
(Copy.)
33
At the desire of His Excellency, Acting Governor, I have much pleasure in pointing out the alterations made in the Opium Bill, since its first reading, on the 18th March, 1887, until it became law.
The Bill as introduced to the Council was the one appended to my report, appendix D, and which had been approved by Her Majesty's Government. It had been drafted by Sir Robert Hart and accepted by him on behalf of the Chinese Government. It will be remembered that when I first submitted a scheme to the Commission for solving the question of the blockade of Hongkong, and the smuggling of Opium into China from the Colony, I proposed that licenses should be granted for the retail of Opium, but that such licenses...