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He cannot conclude without declaring that next to these causes the peaceful adjustment of difficulties must be ascribed to the scrupulous good faith of the very eminent person with whom negotiations are still pending.
(Signed)
CHARLES ELLIOT,
H.M. Plenipotentiary in China.
(Reprinted from The Chinese Repository, Vol. X, 1841, p. 63.)
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APPENDIX B.
PROCLAMATION OF 7TH JUNE 1841, DECLARING HONGKONG A FREE PORT.
By Charles Elliot, &c., &c., &c.
་
A PROCLAMATION.
It is hereby declared to the merchants and traders of Canton and all parts of the Empire that they and their ships have free permission to resort to and trade at the port of Hong Kong, where they will receive full protection from the high officers of the British nation; and, Hong Kong being on the shores of the Chinese Empire, neither will there be any charges on imports and exports payable to the British Government. And it is further clearly declared that there will be an immediate embargo upon the port of Canton and all the large ports of the Empire if there be the least obstruction to the freedom of trade and intercourse with the port of Hong Kong. Persons bringing information to the British officers which shall lead to the detection of pirates will be liberally rewarded; and the pirates will be taken and delivered over to the officers of the Chinese Government for punishment. At Macao, this 7th day of June, 1841.
(Reprinted from British Parliamentary Papers: "Correspondence relating to the Complaints of the Mercantile Community in Hong Kong against the Action of Chinese Revenue Cruizers in the neighbourhood of the Colony" (1875), p. 2. The version printed in the Chinese Repository, Vol. X, 1841, p. 350, omits the words “trade and intercourse with the port of.")
451
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