259
50.
perpetuation of the detested blockade, which the
Hongkong community were so anxious to be rid of,
and as an unwarranted interference with the
independent status of the Colony. We have no
copy of the despatch to the Colonial Office,
referred to in the paragraphs quoted from Sir C.
Clementi on the history of the fiscal blockade
(Section 2 (a) above), in which Sir Robert Hart's
proposals were reported and apparently objected
to, but we have a copy of the London China
Association's views as expressed to the Foreign
Office on the subject (page 295-298 in Affairs
of China Blue Book No. 1 of 1898:-
"It is quite another thing, however, when "the Government is asked to formally "recognize the presence in Hongkong of an "Imperial Chinese Customs official and a "Customs office and staff. It is still "more serious when the Government is "requested to authorize the collection, in "Hongkong, of duties (likin included) on "all goods and merchandise carried from or "to any Chinese ports in Chinese vessels.
To concede so much would be to place "Hongkong on the level of a Chinese Treaty "Port, and to accept for it the position of a fiscal dependency of Canton, The "first admission would injure its status as a free port, the second would in ure its prestige as a British colony".
The China Association considered
that it was the desire of the Central Government
to secure its revenues on opium that was at the
back of these proposals of Sir 2. Hart, and
suggested that Hongkong should swallow its pride
as a free port to the extent of itself
collecting an export tax on opium, equivalent
to the rightful import duty collectable on
/entry
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