{
292
junka at the Customs Stations en route to Hongkong have
been supplied to the Superintendent of Import and Exports.
This has proved a valuable check on the imports of liquor
and has much facilitated the collection of Revenue. In
return for this assistance it was arranged with my
approval that trading junks should be required, although
the requirement cannot at present be enforced by law, to
produce their Customs Pass Books at the Harbour Office,
thus establishing a check on their movements outside
the waters of the Colony, and ensuring their reporting
themselves at the proper Chinese Customs Station.
6.
The second and third articles
aim at preventing as far as possible any smuggling of Salt,
Sulphur, Saltpetre or Dynamite to China. Salt in China is a
Government Monopoly and its manufacture, import and export
is prohibited unless covered by permits issued by the Salt
Commissioner or the Merchant Monopolists recognised by
the Salt Commissioner. I enclose a memorandum by Mr. Harris
regarding Salt in China, dated the 15th. ultimo, which may
assist Your Lordship in considering this matter. On the
other hand, Sulphur, Saltpetre and Dynamite are munitions
of war, and it is as much in the interest of this Colony
as in the interest of China to prevent the smuggling of
these articles, which are much in demand by the robbers
and pirates infesting the Eiang Kuang Provinces.
17.
Articles 4. 5, 6, 7 and 8 are
concessions by China to this Colony and will be of great
value to the trade of Hongkong. The Registrar-General
informs me that the Chinese do not object to the voluntary
examination of cargo by the Chinese Imperial Maritime
Customs at Shamshuipo, while the British Merchants of the
Colony are anxious to obtain the privileges, set out in
these articles, which are similar to those granted by
China to the German Colony of Tsingtao and known as the
"Kiaochow
Enclosure 8.