* *
2
2.
425
arte *
04
suance of the Chefeo Convention may have minimised the
ostensible trouble, but it is open to contention that
the result has been attained at the cost of sacrificing
the freedom of the port. The maintenance of the Rule
that junks shall not leave their anchorage at Hongkong
after dark may afford another instance in point. In-
pitacy stituted, no doubt, with a view toʻqisez rather than
smuggling, it has nevertheless greatly helped the Chin-
ese Customs Authorities to prevent evasion of the cordon
which they have found it easier to draw around the is-
land than along their own coast, and has since the
original motive ceased to be cogent been regarded in
the Colony chiefly from that point of view.
That Chinese Traders and junk owners dislike these
conditions is well known. Neither are the reasons which
deter them from remonstrance far to seek, when we remem-
ber the methods of Chinese mandarins, and the facilities
which knowledge acquired in Hongkong may afford for ac-
tion on the mainland. Chinese members of the Hongkong
Legislative Council have, however, ventured to speak
freely, under cover of acquired British nationality;
and your Lordship may gather from the annexed communi-
cation (2) the state of feeling which they have found to
exist.
The junk trade between Hongkong and the mainland
is an important distributing medium. If existing ar-
rangements have prejudicially affected it, the intensity
of the resentment felt at the prospect of further inter-
ference becomes intelligible.
6