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but such a prohibition had so far presented no difficulty
whatsoever to the three firms mentioned above. Before
the consignments from the United States arrived the
brazenly registered them with the local authoritios as
goods in transhipment only. The Hong Kong police could
do nothing. The system, they complained, was "too full
of loopholes".
8.
As the result the traffic looked like increasing.
ven since the attached note had been written, Er. Green
said, a prominent firm of United States arus manufacturers
had requested a perait for a staggering consignment of
cartridges etc., for Hong Kong, assuring him that they
had no possible ground to suppose that the consignment
was not for the liong Kong retail market. In the light of
the information at his disposal, he was quite sure that
most of this material would pass straight through Hong
Kong into Southern China.
9. The United -tates were very anxious that this
alaring gap in the system for preventing arus getting
illicitly into China should be stopped as soon as possible;
and the State Departmont falt sure that the necessary
tightening up of the woasures in force at liong Kong could
be effected strictly within the letter of the Barcelona
Transit Convention of 1921. They had studied Article V of
that Convention v sy closely before venturing to express
the opinion embodied in the attached note; and they
sincerely hoped that His Majesty's Government would
reconsider/