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6. The Importers and Wholesale Dealers submit that, if their Godowns and Ample security. Stores are registered and are open to the Police inspection together with their books, there is ample security that no arms will be sold or disposed of by them except for export or to Licensed Dealers, and all the restrictions on the removal and conveyance of arms and ammunition in the Colony, so far as they are concerned, are needless.
7. They suggest that any arms or ammunition that it may be necessary for them Movement of arms. to move in the Colony whether for export or from godown to godown, or for de- livery to other dealers in the Colony on salo, shall be sufficiently protected if the coolie carrying the arms or ammonition is provided with a statement properly au- thenticated in writing of the kind, number and quantity of the arms or ammuni- tion or both that are being moved, of the name of the Dealer moving the arms, &c., and of their immediate destination, such statement to be on a form supplied on pay- ment by the Government to each dealer. Where there are more coolies than two employed a Head Coolie should accompany them bearing the certificate. The requirement of the Bill that no arms or ammunition shall be moved without a re- moval permit or exported without an export permit is an unnecessary impediment in the way of business in Hongkong. It takes two or three days to get a permit as a rule and from noon on Saturday until 10 a.m. on Monday and on holidays no permit can be applied for or obtained. Much business is now done by wire. steamers remain in port but a very few days, and much valuable business is lost by the necessity of getting an export or removal permit.
8. The forfeiture of arms being moved for any purpose unaccompanied by a certificate such as is above mentioned will be in nearly all cases a more than sufficient punishment for any neglect.
9. An effective use by the Police of the power to inspect books and examine and check stocks will prevent any improper disposition of either arms or ammunition.
10. With reference to the export of arms and ammunition to China in foreign- built ships and steamers, the Importers and Dealers submit that there should be no restriction whatever. They can only go to open ports and the Imperial Maritime Customs are fully competent to protect Chinese interests at these ports and to enforce the laws of China with reference to contraband.
Provision in Bil impracticable, if any trade to continue
Importers.
11. Importers and Wholesale Dealers holding licence and registered as such No retail sale by should not, of course, sell arms or ammunition retail in the Colony, but only to Licensed Retail Dealers.
12. It is submitted that the Ordinance would be much improved if these two two classes of Licences. classes of dealers the Importers and Wholesale Dealers and the Retail Dealers- were dealt with separately.
13. As to the Retail Trade, it is suggested that no Wholesale Dealer should be Betail Trade,
at liberty to sell or dispose of any arms or ammunition except to Licensed Dealers. That all Retail Dealers should be licensed and registered and their names and addresses be published in The Gazelle. That they should be required to keep Books and furnish returns like the Wholesale Dealers, and that their books and stock should be periodically examined and checked.
14. Under the existing Ordinances this examination of Books and checking of This never yet enforced. stocks has never been enforced. If it had been there would have been no need for the present Bill.
15. Retail Dealers sell in all quantities, a single rifle, or fowling piece or pistol, or a package of ammunition, or a pound of powder or a box of caps value 50 cents, It renders that trade impossible, or forces them into illegal trafficking in arms, to require every purchaser of the smallest quantity of ammunition or of the smallest
Retail Trade impossib live a llence.
if every purchaser must
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fire-arm or part of a fire-arm to hold a permit to possess or carry arms or to export. It would be far better to say at once that it is intended to suppress the entire trade in arms than to harrass it in this way. Thousands of Chinese come to Hongkong daily by the steamers from Canton and Macao, and by junk. Many of them are either entitled by permit from the Chinese Mandarins to have arms, or are for their own protection absolutely compelled to provide themselves with arms. Many of them are here on business only for a day. Many come one day and return the next. It is impossible for them in the time to get permits to possess, or carry, or export, and in the time what chance have they (strangers in the Colony) of getting such permit from the Captain Superintendent of Police. He is too busy to attend
to them. He would refuse the permit until he had time to make inquiries and verify their statements.
16. If the provisions of the present Bill become law and are enforced, the retail trade in arms will be killed dead, and with that retail trade a considerable and a valuable portion of the wholesale trade will be destroyed too, for the aggregate sale of Arms and Ammunition in the Colony by retail is very considerable in a year. The retail traders will move to Macao, and the import and wholesale trade will follow and will fall into the hands of unscrupulous persons who will make it their sole business, with the probable result that the ill-disposed both here and on the mainland will find it still more easy to procure both Arms and Ammunition. The import into the Colony of Arms and Ammunition in small quantities by junk or boat from Macao cannot be checked.
17. The following suggestions are made for the amendment of the Bill now before the Comucil :----
1. That it be divided into three parts. One dealing with the Importers and Wholesale Dealers. One dealing with the Retail Dealers. One regulating the carriage and possession of arms; and that the regula- tions applicable to each be worked out separately,
2. That the expression "to carry arins "be defined and limited to the carriage of arms ou the person for use or ready for use, and that some other expression be introduced and defined to cover the carrying of arms in the sense of conveying them from place to place as a coolie carries arms or ammunition from shop to godown or boat, or a servant carries a gun or a belt of cartridges for his master's use. No one should carry arms in the first sense without a licence. No person conveying arms or ammunition in the second sense should be required to have more than the authorisation of the owner of the arms, who should be responsible if anything was wrong,
3. "Possession" is a word that also needs definition. There is the posses- sion of the owner, who remains in possession, even when the arms are in the actual custody of his servant. There is possession of the servant which, if duly authorized by a person empowered to possess, ought to go free of any penalties.
4. The Captain Superintendent of Police is probably the proper person to grant licences to carry or have possession of arms, He has probably the best means of knowing who may safely be permitted to carry arms, but the period covered by the licence, the conditions on which it is granted, and the power of revocation, should be regulated by law or by Rules and Regulations made by the Governor-in-Council.
An appeal should lie to the Governor-in-Conncil from any refusal to grant
a licence, the Captain Superintendent of Police being obliged by law on demand to state in writing his reasons for his refusal.