5-
present at the ceremony had high hopes for the Railway,
and thought that it would soon become a 'gold mine'.
Unfortunately these hopes have not been realised, but
it is not the fault of the railway itself, but rather of
political disturbances.
SIR SHOUSON CHOW says that he was in the Chinese Government
Service at the time and he was one of the commissioners
appointed by the Imperial Government for negotiating
84
with the Chinese-British corporation for a loan for
building the Railway. He considers this a rather curious
coincidence.
MR. KOTEWALL says that he, too, had something to do with the
Railway, for it was he who translated into Chinese the
agreement entered into between the British and the Chinese
Authorities.
MR. FUNG promises to give the matter his best consideration.
HIS EXCELLENCY then raises the question of smuggling in Chinese
waters. He says that he has just had a discussion on
the subject with the British Consul-General at Canton,
about the incident of the British Gunboat "Loth" at
Dosing. His Excellency does not wish to afford protec- tion to anyone who resorts to smuggling, much less to
ships which use the British Flag for the purpose of
smuggling. He knows that salt has been loaded on ships
in Hong Kong for China; but there is no law in Hong Kong
which prevents the loading of sat on any vessels in its
harbour. The only way to prevent the abuse is for the
Canton Authorities to have all vessels passing through
their Customs stations thoroughly searched for smuggled
goods. It is not against the Treaty between Great Britain
and China for the Chinese Maritime Customs to search and,
if they found any contraband in a vessel, to detain it;
it is the search and seizure of British vessels by au-
thorities other than the Chinese Maritime Customs that