CO129-521-13 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 27-8-1930 - 16-10-1930 — Page 138

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perpetuation of the detested blockade, which the

Hongkong community were so anxious to be rid of,

and as an unwarranted interference with the

independent status of the Colony. We have no

copy of the despatch to the Colonial Office,

referred to in the paragraphs quoted from Sir C.

Clementi on the history of the fisoal blockade

(Section 2 (a) above), in which Sir Robert Hart's

proposals were reported and apparently objected

to, but we have a copy of the London China

Association's views as expressed to the Foreign

Office on the subject (page 295-298 in Affairs

of China Blue Book No. 1 of 1898:-

"It is quite another thing, however, when "the Government is asked to formally "recognize the presence in Hongkong of "Imperial Chinese Customs official and a "Customs office and staff. It is still "more serious when the Goverment is

requested to authorize the collection, in "Hongkong, of duties (likin included) on "all goods and merchandise carried from or "to any Chinese ports in Chinese vessels, "To eproede so much would be to place

ong eng on the level of a Chinese Treaty Port and to accept for it the position of a fiscal, dependency of Canton, Wh first admission would inure it status as a free port. the second would in ure its prestige as a British colony

The China Association considered

that it was the desire of the Central Government

to secure its reveres on opium that was at the

back of these proposals of Sir d. Hart, and

suggested that Hongkong should swallow its pride

as a free port to the extent of itself

collecting an export tax on opium, equivalent

to the rightful import duty collectable on

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