1
give effect to the objects which His Majesty's Goverment
92
have in view, and will at the same time be possible in the
:
Hof C 15394
existing financial position in this Colony.
4.
Your Lordship said in your telegram
of the 5th. of last May that His Majesty's Government
recognised the necessity of acting up to the standards set
by China. Those Chinese standards so far as the closing of
Divans is concerned involve the arbitrary confiscation of
vested rights without compensation - a course of action
which as shewn by the unanimous opinion of the House of
Commons in the debate on the Licensing Bill, is repugnant
to British ideas of justice. The Central Government at
Peking actuated I am convinced by motives at once altru-
-istic and sincere has promulgated Edicts to restrict the
habit of Opium Smoking but in doing so has unfortunately
shewn some lack of practical administrative capacity by
neglecting to assure itself that those upon whom the en-
-forcement of these Edicts devolved had the means at their
disposal to give effect to them. As a matter of fact they
have neither the means of replacing the loss of Revenue
already hypothecated to the necessities of Government nor
the machinery necessary to enforce orders and to prevent
evasion of the law by the substitution of means and methods
calculated