237
€7/1813
19888-
of the shroff, since which time they have been used, and are, I
believe, still used, in conjunction with the old ones. The
steps taken, as already detailed, (paragraph 13 of my letter of
1 June, and paragraph 6 of that of 16 June 1911), included the
erasure of the words "received from" at the head of the various
forms, forbidding the shroff to receive any money except in the
Harbour Office, and the issue of a printed circular to the firus,
shipping and otherwise, from whom he had been wont to collect money, requesting them to refrain for the future from paying anything to anyone save in my office, or by letter. In order
that there should be no misunderstanding about it, I personally
saw the gentlemen who were responsible in their respective firms,
and explained my reasons for issuing the circular, requesting
them to co-operate, which in every case they promised to do. I also personally saw, on frequent occasions, that the words
"received from" were actually erased from the forms. It was
obviously out of the question for me to personally supervise
the filling in of every one of the thousands of such forms which
issue from my office, while, had I directed that every such form
be brought to me for inspection before being sent out, not only
would my time have been very largely occupied by this alone,
but it would have presupposed that obedience to orders which
events have proved to be so singularly lacking on the part of
the Chinese, and would have therefore failed in its object.
Charge (d) That the shroff at times did not
account for his daily collections for 5 or
3 days.
7.
This is an expression of opinion on the part of the
Auditor, the grounds for which do not appear. I can only account for such an opinion on the supposition that officer
imagines that the bills are collected on the same day upon
which they are sent out, and that the discrepancy between the
date