t
'
365
made by the British Consul-General.
3.
The whole incident has created the
worst possible impression in business circles in this
Colony. The Hongkong Chamber of Commerce and the local
branch of the China Association have emphatically condemned
the manner in which the negotiations were in the first
instance conducted by Mr. Jamieson, while the local Opium
Merchants have lost all confidence in him and distrust
him. It is currently reported that the regulations (to
which such strong exception has been taken both by the
British Government and by the Merchants concerned) were
originally submitted to Mr. Jamieson in draft by the
Provincial Authorities and that he signified his approval
of them. He did this, so far as I know, without reference
to His Majesty's Minister at Peking and certainly without
in any way consulting the Merchants concerned or this
Government, and I submit that his action forms a most
unsatisfactory contrast to that of Mr. J. Scott, when in
1902 Taotai Hsu tried similar tactics.
There is much force in the oon-
ad
-tention of the Opium Merchants that, they actually buy
their Opium from the British Government on the faith of
treaties now existing between Great Britain and China,
note to page
3 of Memo!)
they