3.
97
danger. He was, however, fully alive to the desirabili-
ty of assisting the Chinese in every way to repress the
smuggling that was taking place through Hongkong, and
hoped to come to an agreement on the scheme of "dual
control" drawn up by Mr. Lloyd, the superintendent of
Customs and Excise. I told sir william Peel that I
agreed with these views, and that I had come to feel
that the right thing to do was to drop the previous draft
agreement and concentrate on the smuggling problem. I
did not think the Nanking Government would be in a posi-
tion to turn down any soheme that offered a reasonable
chance of protecting its revenues, merely because it did
not give the Customs the position of independence that
it hoped to acquire in the Colony and its watera. The
thing to aim at was discussion by experts of both sid es
on the spot, by dint of which it might be possible to
arrive at some scheme which could eventually be submitte
to the ühinese and His Majesty's Governments. I saked
. Ingram to endeavour to persuade the Inspector-Gener-
al/