424
to retain their existing stations (two of which are in
the very harbour, and others on islands in the immediate
vicinity on the East and West) might almost suggest the
presence of an underlying purpose to render impossible
the acceptance of capital requests which it had appeared
desirable, for some reason, to prefer.
Grievances which had been, hitherto, in some degree
sentimental would then indeed assume a pratical form.
If the presence of Customs stations on the adjacent
mainland and at the entrance to the harbour, and of Cus-
toms cruisers in the waters surrounding the colony, has
been hindrance and a source of vexation when these terri-
tories and waters were Chinese, the annoyance would be
less endurable still when they assumed the character of
Foreign establishments within territory under British
control.
a
Great allowance has been made for the position of
Hongkong, and X greater allowance still for the ineffic-
iency of Xe Chinese Administration. The British Govern-
ment does very much more for the Chinese fisc than any
European Government would do for another power; and the
Chinese Government responds by a degree of intrusion
which no Buropean Government would admit. It is no ex-
aggeration to say that the entire native junk trade with
the mainland is controlled by the Staff attached to the
Chinese Customs Office in Hongkong; for the colony is
supervised by Chinese native employés, while its waters
are patrolled by Customs armed steam launches; and we
may be sure that very little escapes such a system under
European supervision. The arrangements made in pur-
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