CO129-425 - Governor Sir May - 1915 [10-12] — Page 773

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which Hongkong can properly be held to be responsible may be, it is certain that it is very large and that the consequent loss of revenue to China is very considerable and I trust you will agree with me that these facts justify exceptional and drastic action on the part of this Government.

I would also draw attention to the fact that

salt smulers are notoriously a dangerous class whose calling trains them to defy the law and to use desperate measures to maintain themselves in defiance of the law. Hence Too Man has come to be a well know nest of pirates and robbers, and the cases of kidnapping reported in my Despatch, Confidential, of the 24th a5 bbs & 2566515 December show that salt smugglers have not hesitated to prey upon the innocent inhabitants of this Colony. In February, 1913, there was reason to believe that a gang of salt smugglers planned an

attack upon the isolated Police Station at Tai 0, Lantao Island,

which was frustrated by the preparedness and good state of defence

of the Police and Police Station there. In the interests therefore

of law and order in the Colony, if for no other reason, it is

desirable that the pursuit of the smiling of salt should be dis-

-couraged.

3.

Turning now to Mr. Hutchison's report I have

no hesitation in recording the opinion that the most effective mems of preventing the smugling of salt from this colony would be by placing a universal tax on the commodity which is taxed in China, in Macao, through a Salt Farm, and in certain of the French Colonies in the Far East. A uniform tax of $2.50 per picul as in China even if applied to the Salt Fish industry, would not be a heavy burden even on the poder classes of Chinese residents in this Colony, and with a view to making proposals in that behalf to you I recently sent Mr. Hutchison to confer with the Governor of Macao on the subject, since it is essential, as Mr. Hutchison points out, for the success of such a scheme in Hongkong that it should also be adopted in Hacao, and to discuss with His Excellency the report which Mr. Hutcuison had dram up. The

Governor

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