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APPENDIX E.
EXTRACTS FROM BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS RE CHINESE CONSUL TO BE RESIDENT IN HONGKONG.
EXTRACT FROM MEMORANDUM BY SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK ON "FURTHER MEMORIALS RESPECTING THE CHINA TREATY CONVENTION."
Finally, as regards the appointment of a Chinese Consul to reside at Hong Kong. The Colonists object very strongly, on the ground that he will be an instrument of oppression, and his presence will tend to drive away trade and Chinese residents, by the power he can exercise over their relatives and connections on the mainland. Mr. Matheson, who endorses this opinion in the name of the Committee of London merchants, denies, or does not see, that the Convention gives, if not all, some of the most important of the privileges of a Treaty port to Hong Kong, placing it on the same footing as to transhipment and coasting trade. And while admitting as a regrettable fact the existence of a contraband trade with the mainland-"owing to the corruption of the Chinese officials on the coast" he repudiates any obligation or responsibility. It is probable the Chinese authorities and Government, who estimate that they lose annually some 500,000l. sterling of revenue by this irresponsible proximity of a British free port at the mouth of one of their great rivers, attribute the fact to other causes besides the corruption of their officials on the coast, without in the least denying that such corruption may contribute its aid. At all events, if, as Mr. Matheson suggests, it is not any part of our duty to prevent an active contraband trade between the Colony and the mainland, he testifies to "the Chinese Government being clearly entitled to adopt any measures for that purpose on their own territory and in their own waters which they may find to be necessary." The Treaty of Tien-tsin has also recognized this right in the most unequivocal manner. But the Committee must have forgotten that, as late as last year, when the Viceroy of Canton acted upon this conviction, and strictly within the limits indicated so far as the plan of operations was concerned, and in a way fully sanctioned both by Treaty and international law, by placing coastguard stations on the mainland—as we do in England—and employing revenue cruisers to enforce the revenue laws, there was a very loud cry of indignation from the mercantile community and residents of Hong Kong, and some very strong denunciatory language was put into print, and otherwise officially communicated both to the Viceroy at Canton and Her Majesty's Government by the constituted authorities of the island.
From this, and all past experience, it was concluded that the only choice lay between honestly co-operating with the authorities of the mainland and giving them the means, in accordance with international usage, of exercising a perfectly legal and reasonable degree of surveillance over the trade carried on by the native vessels sailing from Hong Kong,--or leaving the Chinese Government in the exercise of an undoubted right to "adopt any measures for that purpose in their own waters and on their own territory which they might find to be necessary."
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And judging by the spirit shown in the Colony, and having regard to the measures the Chinese Colonists and traders were likely to take, under the shadow of British protection, it seemed very certain that any measures of the Chinese authorities to be effective must be very stringent, and backed by force. Under such conditions a state of constant conflict was likely to result by which the interests of Hong Kong were certain to be deeply affected, and many irregularities and abuses on both sides could hardly fail to crop up. It certainly seemed, under these circumstances, the wiser policy to choose the former alternative. It promised better for all the legitimate interests of Hong Kong; and if open to some abuses, whatever these might be, they were likely to be much less serious and more easily dealt with than those certain to arise with much attendant violence and bloodshed in perpetual conflicts between smugglers and a fleet of revenue-cutters and steamers, well armed and commanded by Europeans. If the objection against the appointment of a Consul that it is liable to abuse be valid, do the merchants of Hong Kong conceive Chinese opium stations on the mainland opposite, and revenue cruisers in the neighbouring waters under Chinese officials-the other alternative if the Chinese Government are resolute in the enforcement of their rights-likely to be more exempt or less injurious in their influence upon the population and trade of Hong Kong? And if not, and they equally object to both, what remedy do they propose for a state of things highly injurious to their neighbours, and not very creditable to a British Colony? A state of affairs, be it remarked, that the Chinese authorities declare cannot last, and must be amended.
(Reprinted from the British Parliamentary Paper: China No. 10 (1870), pp. 10, 11.)
EXTRACT FROM DESPATCH FROM THE EARL OF CARNARVON, H.B.M.'S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES, TO SIR ARTHUR KENNEDY, GOVERNOR OF HONGKONG, UNDER DATE 22ND MARCH 1875.
This brings me to the consideration of a question which underwent much discussion some years ago, and which was adverted to at the public meeting held in the Colony on the 14th of September last. I refer to the proposal made by Her Majesty's Minister at Pekin, that a Chinese Consul should be appointed to reside in Hong Kong. Without examining the sufficiency of the grounds which were put forward at that time for rejecting the proposal of Mr. Wade, it appears to me that, looking at it now from a different point of view, and in connection with the difficulty which has unfortunately arisen, no really substantial argument could be advanced against intrusting to a Chinese Consul in Hong Kong the privilege of collecting from junk-masters the receipts for export duty levied in China, and issuing to them similar receipts for duty payable on account of importations into China, and that the practical advantages resulting from this arrangement would more than compensate the Colony for the inconvenience which has been apprehended from the appointment of such a functionary.
*The proposal was first put forward by Sir Rutherford Alcock,
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