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grievance in regard to smuggled opium. The geographical position of Hongkong immediately adjacent to the coast of China made it difficult for China to control the contraband trade.
To do so would require patrolling all the rugged coastline and its thousands of inlets and navigable streams, or, as an alternative, to place a cordon of Chinese ships around Hongkong. They could patrol within Chinese waters the entrances and exits of Hongkong.
In view of the alternative, Sir Rutherford proposed that "it would seem reasonable that the Emperor of China should have the same right to appoint a consul to reside in Hongkong as all other Treaty Powers have, and to enjoy the same rights and exercise the same authority in matters connected with the trade of Chinese subjects as any other nation in treaty with Great Britain may claim in British Colonies."
The proposal was received as worth consideration by the British Government and the item was put on the agenda for the formal negotiations regarding treaty revision which were to begin soon.
It is not surprising that a cry of alarm arose in Hongkong over the suggestion.
Sir Rutherford was a diplomat and not a trader. He viewed the problem as one to be resolved according to diplomatic usage. The Government officials in Hongkong were eager to protect its commercial interests.
They viewed the problem from a financial and not a diplomatic stance.
Sir Rutherford looked at the request within the enlarged context of Britain's total relation to China, of which Hongkong was only a part.
Hongkong, on the other hand, related the problem to its own peculiar position and the difficulty of governing a population it regarded as a potential threat to its security.
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grievance in regard to smuggled opium. The geographical position of Hongkong immediately adjacent to the coast of China made it difficult for China to control the contraband trade.
To do so would require patrolling all the rugged coastline and its thousands of inlets and navigable streams, or, as an alternative, to place a cordon of Chinese ships around Hongkong. They could patrol within Chinese waters the entrances and exits of Hongkong.
In view of the alternative, Sir Rutherford proposed that "it would seem reasonable that the Emperor of China should have the same right to appoint a consul to reside in Hongkong as all other Treaty Powers have, and to enjoy the same rights and exercise the same authority in matters connected with the trade of Chinese subjects as any other nation in treaty with Great Britain may claim in British Colonies."
The proposal was received as worth consideration by the Brit- ish Government and the item was put on the agenda for the formal negotiations regarding treaty revision which were to begin soon.
It is not surprising that a cry of alarm arose in Hongkong over the suggestion.
Sir Rutherford was a diplomat and not a trader. He viewed the problem as one to be resolved according to diplomatic usage. The Government officials in Hongkong were eager to protect its com- mercial interests.
They viewed the problem from a financial and not a diplomatic stance.
Sir Rutherford looked at the request within the enlarged con- text of Britain's total relation to China, of which Hongkong was only a part.
Hongkong, on the other hand, related the problem to its own peculiar position and the difficulty of governing a population it regarded as a potential threat to its security.
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