CO129-534-3 Report of Retrenchment Commission 4-5-1931 - 19-2-1932 — Page 110

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS DEPARTMENT.

With the exception of the Treasury th

Imports and Exports Department is the largest

revenue collecting of all the Government

departments. The staff is however chiefly

occupied in the prevention of smugling and

evasion of excise duties. Hong Kong is go

situated that it is peculiarly easy for the

smuggler of opium, liquor and tobacco to bring

his wares into the Colony. The staff of

eighteen European and ninety six Chinese Reven

Officers is not too large for the work to be

performed. The more that smuggling can be

prevented the greater will be the revenue. It

was for this reason that the Commission ers

informed the Government last September that

they agreed to the building of a new launch fu;

the department.

2.

No reduction is recommended in the sti

of the Statistical Branch.

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