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when the Tariff was light, to awe the smugglers and they submitted to search without the slightest resistance, it was unnecessary to provide our Launchos with expensive mod:n armaments. However, the conditions have now completely changed and the smugglers are prepared to defy the authority of the overnment by armed resistance. Effective measures, therefore, should now be dcvised, as mcntioned above, in order to put a stop to this open defiance of authority. In the first place, it will be necessary to discard all the present obsoleto armaments carried by our Kowloon and Lappa Revenue Launches and to replace them by effective modern weapons and this, naturally, will entail considorable exponse. In the sccond place, it will be necessary to give full authority to officers in charge of such vessels actively to deal with smugglers who offer armed resistance to our vessels in the performance of their duty that is, to fire on them!
The Inspector General also considers that further investigation will probably indicate that it is necessary to provide one or two additional vessels, better armed and better protected than the vessels now in commission, in order to enable us to cope successfully with the claborato smuggling organisation now developing in Kowloon and Lappa vators. And the Government, of course, should officially authorise the Customs' Officers concerned to use force where force is opposed against us - and, if necessary,
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