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V
Office in London, will be able to furnish you with Copy
Mr.
of this document, which is of considerable length.
Wright of course writes from the Customs point of view,
but he makes a case for the fulfilment by His Majesty's
Government of its obligations towards China in the matter
of the protection of her revenues from smuggling based on
the Colony of Hong Kong.
5. A perusal of all these papers leads me to the
conviction, which I must confess I have felt instinctively
since I have had any acquaintance with this most compli-
cated question, that too much insistence may have been
placed on the conclusion of an agreement which, as it were,
imposes unwelcome obligations on both parties, when the
main object sought might perhaps be attained without forc-
ing either to make ooncessions which it can only grudging-
ly grant. It may be retorted that this is a counsel of
perfection, and that all agreement is based on compromise.
It is, however, possible to compromise too much, In other
words, I question, in the present instance, whether on the
one hand it is wise or necessary in the long run for the
Hong Kong Government to hand over to the Chinese Customs
the fiscal control of its harbours and territories, which
the latter are insisting upon as a means of putting a stop
to the misuse of British territory as a base for smuggling,
or whether on the other hand it is wise or necessary for
the Hong Kong Government to continue to press the Chinese,
as compensation for these concessions, to grant others
which, in their present frame of mind, they can but con-
sider hurtful to their national pride and opposed to their
declared policy. In fact since I came to know a little
more about it I have never really felt very favourably
disposed