1
83
should be prohibited.
(4) The Opium Farmer should be forbidden to hand over any raw opium supplied to him.
(5) The opium Farmer alone should be permitted
to boil opium, and
(6) "Merchant vessels should be forbidden
"to tranship goods by stealth".
The Inspector General further suggested a system of stamped slips for the marking of Chests which had paid duty, &
requested information as to what was to be done as to
the reporting & remitting of the Opium Duty, & the
disposal of confiscated opium,
To this the Hongkong Government replied, (24/11/99) with reference to Sir Robert Hart's proposed amendments,
that the first should not be adopted for fear of
misinterpretation & the fear, in some cases, of having
the very effect that the Inspector General wished to avoid,
& pointing out that the Amending Ordinance (22 of '91)
made his fears groundless.
The second was unnecessary, as the expression "any boat"
would include a fishing boat.
As to the third, the Hongkong Government were ready to accept
it, but as the prevention of smuggling of boiled opium
into China would involve the creation of a preventive
system costing between $100000 & $150000, & this was about
treble the value of the duty on the present quantity
exported from Hongkong into China, some sort of guarantee
of the expenses would be necessary by the Chinese Government
The fourth suggestion could be adopted, being covered by
the opium farm agreement.
The