888
M.
weed deixa aaDC
.01 ***
100
of enquiry would have elicited a denial of the rumours in
the course of a day.
There is one point in Nr.Jamieson's despatch on which
a word of comment from me may be expected. He states
quite correctly the substance of the conversation he had
with me in September last year
on the subject of the addit-
ional charges on foreign opium in a Treaty Port. The Lega-
tion always held that euch taxation was illegal, but the
Chinese Government would not admit the justice of the
contention. The question is perhaps an arguable one and
at any rate it has become increasingly difficult in recent
Fears to enforce our view of it.
The whole position of Vls Majesty's Representative
in China with regard to the opium question is one of qon-
siderable delicacy and no little embarrasement, of which
to me
the Hongkong Government seem to show a very inadequate
vičnem trobad
+
appreciation. She Chinese Government and the Chinese
Authorities throughout the Empire know perfectly well thr
there is
a large body of public opinion in Freland and
elsewhere which will sustain them in disregarding the
striet