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61
be called upon to pay thousands of dollars in duty.
Successful smuggling will mean a fortune to every junk-
owner; and, since once into the country would be sufficient
there being ex hypothesi no likin or surtax stations to
deal with goods thereafter every hamlet along the sea-
coast within easy reach of Hong Kong would become a depôt
for illicit trading on a grand scale. Such smuggling would
be very detrimental to legitimate British commerce and would,
I fear, inevitably produce serious friction between this
Government and adjacent Chinese administrations.
If a
determined attempt were made by the Canton Government to
prevent smuggling from Hong Kong. it is very probable that
we should see a repetition of the so-called "blockade of
Hong Kong", which existed for several years prior to 1887,
and which caused so much bitter feeling in this Colony.
The matter is one of great importance to the future of
Hong Kong and I will discuss it more fully in a separate
despatch. Leanwhile, you will observe from the next
paragraph but one of this despatch, the Canton Authorities
appear to have in mind something very much like the former
"blockade" of Hong Kong.
8.
Last week Mr. Ku Ying-fan returned from Nanking
to Canton to assume duty as Finance Minister for Kuang-tung
and to make the necessary preparations for the seizure
of tariff autonomy and the abolition of likin. Colonel
Hayley Bell at once went to Canton, in order to confer with
Mr. Ku and with the Chinese Superintendent of Customs, and to
ascertain what is expected of the Kowloon Customs, presuming
that the Nanking Government is successful in bringing off
its coup: for it is evident that the Kowloon Customs must
occupy