479
Government without reference to His Majesty's Legation or
to the Government of Hongkong. But apart from this issue
there remains the fact that the Consul-General has through-
-out adopted views which are apparently directly antagonist-
-ic to those of his predecessors, Messrs. Scott, Mansfield,
and Fox, and in opposition alike to the view taken by is
Majesty's Government, the British Minister and the Govern-
-ment of Hongkong. In brief the lattor have consistently
held the viow and impressed it upon tho Chinese Government
that under the additional article of the Chefoo Convention
no tax whatever in excess of Tacls 110 per chest could be
levied on Foreign Opium in a Treaty Port, and that Foreign
Opium if covered by a Transit Certificate, was free from
F
any additional tax while in transit beyond the Treaty
Forts into the interior of China, until the packages made
}
up in bond at the Treaty Port were opened at the place of
consumption in the interior (Sir Jolm Jordan's Despatches
14th. December, 1908, and 2nd. January, 1909). It follows
that the Canton Government has no right whatever to
interfere with Raw Opium destined for the interior until
it reaches its place of consumption provided it has paid
its dues (Tacls 110). They cannot take delivery and order
it to be boiled or assume that Canton is its place of
consumption