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most serious disability if as soon as she crossed the boundary of the Colonial waters she failed to use the red and green side lights prescribed by the Regulations referred to in the preceding paragraph.
4. An attempt was subsequently made to partly remove this anomaly by amending section 25 of Ordinance 35 of 1899 by providing in section 13 of Ordinance 2 of 1903 that a junk might have the option of carrying in the waters of the Colony either the side lights or the single white light which have been referred to.
5. After the passing of Ordinance 39 of 1902 no trouble was spared to inform Junk Masters of the provisions of the Ordinance, and leaflets explaining them in the Chinese language were sent to His Majesty's Consular Officers and to the Commissioners of the Imperial Maritime Customs at all the Treaty Ports of China South of Shanghai. The meaning of the new law was also explained in Notices issued by the Harbour Master in this Colony. Nevertheless up to the present time not a single junk has been known to adopt the side lights either inside or outside our waters.
6. Eighteen months experience has shown that Ordinance 39 of 1902 has failed in its object. This is a result that was anticipated when it was decided not to make the side lights compulsory, to the exclusion of the single white light, in the waters of the Colony as had been originally suggested by some. But even such an enactment would probably only have resulted in the junks that trade with Hongkong adopting