THE COLONY OF HONG KONG
191
but the area of those in China, so far as already ascertained, amounts, it has been said, to 400,000 square miles. All that will yet come in for the benefit of the world at large, and I hope in the first place for the benefit of the nation itself. If the movement of its Government seems to be thus far mainly in the way of military preparation, can we blame it? It would all be found but a very feeble affair in another struggle with ourselves; but I like to see the manifestation of a purpose in China to try and hold its own:-she is the gnarled oak, the growth of four millenniums, which will not bend to us as the sapling of Japan is doing.
And we have given the Japanese little reason to do anything but love us, while we have given China much reason to fear us and hate us. I am not here to-night to express my views on the opium traffic, but I may surely ask, without giving offence to any one, whether, if we had forced that traffic on Japan as we have done on China, the relations between Japan and foreign nations would be what they are to-day. If there be a man here who thinks that there does not glow in me as true a British patriotism as in himself, I only say he does not know me; but I thank God that the United States preceded us in the opening of the Japanese Empire. Their treaty of the 29th July, 1858, recognizes the prohibition of the importation of opium, and that made by Lord Elgin, on the 27th of the following month, does the same, and with a very stringent addition. Thus one thing which has embittered and fettered our intercourse with China, and will continue to do so, so long as it exists, has had no place in our intercourse with Japan; and the result has been accordingly. It is in the evidence of Sir Rutherford Alcock before a parliamentary commission, that again and again Prince Kung declared to him that take away opium and Christian Missions, and there was no concession which the Government was not prepared to make to further the extension of legitimate commerce. We are suffering at this day in Hongkong from the opium traffic, as from nothing else. The Custom houses at the two entrances to our harbour do the greatest injury, I am persuaded, to the development of a healthy and extensive trade with all the seaboard of the south. They were founded on the ground of the smuggling of opium from the Colony. Take that away, and there is no locus standi left for their continuance.
THE COLONY OF HONG KONG
191
but the area of those in China, so far as already ascertained, amounts, it has been said, to 400,000 square miles. All that will yet come in for the benefit of the world at large, and I hope in the first place for the benefit of the nation itself. If the movement of its Government seems to be thus far mainly in the way of military preparation, can we blame it? It would all be found but a very feeble affair in another struggle with ourselves; but I like to see the manifestation of a purpose in China to try and bold its own:-she is the gnarled oak, the growth of four milleniums, which will not bend to us as the sapling of Japan is doing.
And we have given the Japanese little reason to do anything but love us, while we have given China much reason to fear us and hate us. I am not here to-night to express my views on the opium traffic, but 1 may surely ask, without giving offence to any one, whether, if we had forced that traffic on Japan as we have done on China, the relations between Japan and foreign nations would be what they are to-day. If there be a man here who thinks that there does not glow in me as true a British patriotism as in himself, I only say he does not know me; but I thank God that the United States preceded us in the opening of the Japanese Empire. Their treaty of the 29th July, 1858, recognizes the prohibition of the importation of opium, and that made by Lord Elgin, on the 27th of the following month, does the same, and with a very stringent addition. Thus one thing which has embittered and fettered our intercourse with China, and will continue to do so, so long as it exists, has had no place in our intercourse with Japan; and the result has been accordingly. It is in the evidence of Sir Rutherford Alcock before a parlia mentary commission, that again and again Prince Kung declared to him that take away opium and Christian Missions, and there was no concession which the Government was not prepared to make to further the extension of legitimate commerce. We are suffering at this day in Hongkong from the opium traffic, as from nothing else. The Custom houses at the two entrances to our harbour do the greatest injury, I am persuaded, to the development of a healthy and extensive trade with all the seaboard of the south. They were founded on the ground of the smuggling of opium from the Colony. Take that away, and there is no locus standi left for their continuance.
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