CO129-287 - Public Offices & Others - 1898 — Page 435

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4.)

COL

It may be permissible to insist, again, that the

Chefoo Convention had two aims, although the second was

imperfectly attained. The Chinese revenue has been

safe-guarded; but the annoyance from the Canton Customs

Revenue cruisers remains; and the removal of the Customs

cordon was one of the greatest benefits which the Colony

hoped to derive from the Extension which it has so long

desired.

It is suggested that Opium affords the key of the

situation. The temptation to smuggle a higly-taxed

article which represents a large valve in a small com-

pass, is great; and a good deal of what the Imperial

Maritime Customs Authorities call smuggling used, no

doubt, to go on. That is to say that, although the Op-

ium exported from Hongkong to the Mainland contributed,

measurably, ne-doubt, to the Provincial Revenue and to

the private incomes of the Provincial Officials, it

failed to benefit the Imperial Exchequer.

There is not, in casting this side-light on the

situation, any purpose of deprecating the attitude which

H.M.Government saw fit to adopt. It is desirable, how-

ever, to throw all the facts of the situation into re-

lief, when we encounter ulterior demands such as those

which the Association is concerned to combat.

The prac-

tical question is how willingness to assist a Service

and a purpose towards which H.M.Government has naturally

been sympathetic, can be reconciled with the desire of

the Colony to see the Chinese Revenue Stations and Re-

venue Cruisers removed beyond the limits of British ter-

ritory and British waters.

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