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not under the foreign flag to Chinese ports, is to pay duty and li-kin before leaving the hulk.
(b.) Opium leaving a hulk to be taken to any godown at Hong Kong other than the Customs godown is to pay duty and li-kin before leaving the hulk.
(c.) Opium leaving a hulk to be taken to a Chinese Treaty port by vessels under Treaty Power flags, or belonging to the China Merchants' Company, is to pay duty and li-kin at the Treaty port in the manner provided for by the Additional Article; but the hulk officials will issue to each such vessel, for delivery to the Customs at the Treaty port, a cargo certificate describing the nature and quantity of opium received from the hulk and to be delivered at the Treaty port, and will also send a copy of that certificate by some other vessel direct to the Customs at the port concerned.
3. The opium-hulks at Hong Kong will not make any storage charge for opium stored therein for any number of days not exceeding thirty; but the owners of the opium are themselves to insure their opium.
4. The opium duties, &c., payable at Hong Kong are to be paid into a Hong Kong bank, to be designated by the Customs, and are to be thence remitted weekly.
5. England to establish a rule permitting only English vessels and the vessels of such Treaty Powers as accept the opium arrangement contained in the Additional Article to convey opium from India, or from the intermediate ports—Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Notes explanatory.
1. The hulks will be trustworthy, insurable vessels, and provided with every requisite for the convenience of all concerned. The employés on board will be under the orders of the Canton (Commissioner of) Customs, and will have no other functions than those connected with the opium work as set forth in section 2.
2.—(a.) Opium going to Macao by steamer, or to Chinese ports and places by small Chinese vessels, is opium which the foreign importer has already disposed of; it will be, therefore, no interference with trade or capital, and no hardship, to levy duty and li-kin on it when it is about to leave the hulk.
Further, levy then and there is necessary, for if permitted to go from the hulk without paying duty and li-kin, such opium would never be heard of or seen again, and the levy of either would be thereafter impossible.
(b.) Opium leaving the hulk to be landed at Hong Kong, and not sold, should be taken to the proposed Customs godown on shore (a kind of bonded warehouse), to be dealt with there in the same way as if still on board a hulk. But if leaving the hulk for a godown other than the Customs godown, it may be taken for granted that it has been sold, and the levy will not be premature or injurious. In point of fact, if such levy were not insisted on, such exemption would at once open a door for smuggling; such opium as is now smuggled by Chinese vessels would all take this route, and the present smuggling grievance would be harder than ever to deal with.
Further, all such opium is really for Chinese use, either at Hong Kong or in San Francisco, &c., and to make it pay, just as opium going to China pays, will be no hardship to consumers or dealers.
The opium thus consumed at Hong Kong, San Francisco, &c., is about 2,000 or 3,000 piculs annually (the total quantity passing through Hong Kong from India being about 90,000 piculs).
(c.) The most of the opium that passes through Hong Kong goes by foreign steamers, &c., to Treaty ports. By certificating it thus the Customs will be able to keep tally of it, and then the levy of duty and li-kin will be easy at the port of destination, while at the same time the levy will be thus postponed till the importer is selling his drug. It may be necessary to supplement this cargo certificate procedure by requiring steamers, &c., to enter into bonds to deliver the opium at the port it is shipped for from the hulk, or by making bills of lading countersignable by the Customs, or by both.
3. In reply to any one who objects to the presence of Customs hulks at Hong Kong, &c., it may be urged :—
(1.) That what is done by the consent of the two Governments is neither meddling nor assumption on the part of China;
(2.) That, to give effect to the Opium Additional Article, such action is necessary;
(3.) That Hong Kong will not be harmed by such procedure either in the dignity of its Government or in the person or property of its residents;
(4.) That when Hong Kong was first occupied by the British some such collection of duties there on merchandise generally was both contemplated and provided for, as well as defended and justified in Lord Palmerston's instructions to the British negotiator
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not under the foreign flag to Chinese ports, is to pay duty and li-kin before leaving the hulk.
(b.) Opium leaving a hulk to be taken to any godown at Hong Kong other than the Customs godown is to pay duty and li-kin before leaving the hulk.
(e.) Opium leaving a hulk to be taken to a Chinese Treaty port by vessels under Treaty Power flags, or belonging to the China Merchants' Company, is to pay duty and li-kin at the Treaty port in the manner provided for by the Additional Article; but the hulk officials will issue to each such vessel, for delivery to the Customs at the Treaty port, a cargo certificate describing the nature and quantity of opium received from the hulk and to be delivered at the Treaty port, and will also send a copy of that certificate by some other vessel direct to the Customs at the port concerned.
3. The opium-hulks at Hong Kong will not make any storage charge for opium stored therein for any number of days not exceeding thirty; but the owners of the opium are themselves to insure their opium.
4. The opium duties, &c., payable at Hong Kong are to be paid into a Hong Kong bank, to be designated by the Customs, and are to be thence remitted weekly.
5. England to establish a rule permitting only English vessels and the vessels of such Treaty Powers as accept the opium arrangement contained in the Additional Article to convey opium from India, or from the intermediate ports-Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Notes explanatory.
1. The hulks will be trustworthy, insurable vessels, and provided with every requisite for the convenience of all concerned. The employés on board will be under the orders of the Canton (Commissioner of) Customs, and will have no other functions than those connected with the opium work as set forth in section 2.
2.-(a.) Opium going to Macao by steamer, or to Chinese ports and places by small Chinese vessels, is opium which the foreigner importer has already disposed of; it will be, therefore, no interference with trade or capital, and no hardship, to levy duty and hi-kin on it when it is about to leave the bulk.
Further, levy then and there is necessary, for if permitted to go from the bulk without paying duty and li-kin, such opium would never be heard of or seen again, and the levy of either would be thereafter impossible.
(6.) Opium leaving the hulk to be landed at Hong Kong, and not sold, should be taken to the proposed Customs godown on shore (a kind of bonded warehouse), to be dealt with there in the same way as if still on board a hulk. But if leaving the hulk for a godown other than the Customs godown, it may be taken for granted that it has been sold, and the levy will not be premature or injurious. In point of fact, if such levy were not insisted on, such exemption would at once open a door for smuggling; such opium as is now smuggled by Chinese vessels would all take this route, and the present smuggling grievance would be harder than ever to deal with.
Further, all such opium is really for Chinese use, either at Hong Kong or in San Francisco, &c., and to make it pay, just as opium going to China pays, will be no hardship to consumers or dealers.
The opium thus consumed at Hong Kong, San Francisco, &c., is about 2,000 or 3,000 piculs annually (the total quantity passing through Hong Kong from India being about 90,000 piculs).
(c.) The most of the opium that passes through Hong Kong goes by foreign steamers, &c., to Treaty ports. By certificating it thus the Customs will be able to keep tally of it, and then the levy of duty and li-kin will be casy at the port of destination, while at the same time the levy will be thus postponed till the importer is selling his drug. It may be necessary to supplement this cargo certificate procedure by requiring steamers, &c., to enter into bonds to deliver the opiam at the port it is shipped for from the hulk, or by making bills of lading countersignable by the Customs, or by both.
3. In reply to any one who objects to the presence of Customs hulks at Hong Kong, &c., it may be urged :--
(1.) That what is done by the consent of the two Governments is neither meddling nor assumption on the part of China;
(2.) That, to give effect to the Opium Additional Article, such action is necessary; (3.) That Hong Kong will not be harmed by such procedure either in the dignity of its Government or in the person or property of its residents;
(4.) That when Hong Kong was first occupied by the British some such collection of duties there on merchandize generally was both contemplated and provided for, as well as defended and justified in Lord Palmerston's instructions to the British negotiator
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