53
answer to this problem is hard to find since the Chinese
authorities who ought to put a stop to the malpractice
will not put a stop to it because they and their under-
lings are making too good a thing out of it. He con-
cludes by saying "The shipping companies must try to
do what they can to remedy the evil, and one of the
steps would seem to be to reduce the number of cooks,
oooks' boys and other nondescript hangers-on to reason-
able proportions: but that does not provide a complete
solution of the problem. If the Maritime Customs in
Szechuan would be prepared to accept the responsibility of searching for unmanifested cargo as is done in other
parts of China the problem would be nearer a solution: but with the military administration as it is here, the
Customs would not dare to conduct their search unless
provided with an adequate force of soldiers, for the
smugglers are desperate men who are prepared to stop at nothing, not even murder, to protect a profitable ven- ture, as was done in Ichang a year or two ago when two Customs officers were assassinated whilst searching for smuggled cargo. The shipping companies are making a great effort to control this malpractice, and it is to be hoped they will find a means to do so, but the diffi- culties are very great and with almost every man's hand against the, one cannot be very surprised if the dis- covery of the real method of dealing with the matter is delayed for some time.
18.
The above will show that in the opinion of His Majesty's Consular officers at Ichang and Chungking a serious situation is arising in connection with the carry-
ing/