4C0
adverted to above is that of the obligation that we have contracted under the agreement of 1886 to do what is possible to prevent the smuggling of opium from Hongkong into China. The obligation is one which we are morally bound to fulfil, and China will have fair cause for complaint, if we fail in this duty. The substitution of the bonded warehouse system for the farm would necessarily involve the abolition of the main check on such smuggling viz: the existing prohibition, which is stipulated for in the agreement in question, against the possession by more than one person in the Colony of opium in quantities less than one chest. And it would indefinitely multiply the existing opportunities and temptations to smuggle into China. At present, if we except