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The Colony and New Territories on the mainland have a coast line of ap- proximately 190 miles which provides innumerable secluded spots at which con- traband goods can be landed.

The Island of Hong Kong itself has a coastline of approximately 42 miles offering similar facilities for smuggling, and in the neighbouring waters are some sixty sparsely populated islands which can be, and at times have been, used as dumping places for opium which is intended ultimately to be brought to the island or mainland by small craft.

The task of adequately guarding so extensive a frontier and coast line against the smuggling of opium would involve expenditure beyond the means of this Government.

6. A brief survey of the traffic entering the Colony shows the difficulties by Means of which this Government and its officers are faced in their efforts to prevent the entry into

the Colony. introduction of contraband opium.

The returns of the Kowloon-Canton railway for the three months, July. Angust and September, 1929, show that an average of over 40,000 persons per month entered the Colony by rail from stations in Chinese territory.

During the first half of the year 1929 a total of 863,334 passengers entered the Colony by sea.

During the same period 624 ships arrived from Macao, 1654 from Canton, Wuchow and other West River ports, 104 from Kwong Chow Wan territory and 505 from ports on the China Coast other than the above mentioned. The total tonnage of these ships was 2,977,778.

mainland

There are in addition many launches registered in the Colony which ply between the port of Victoria and outlying islands and points on the contiguous to Chinese territory.

Junks to an average of approximately one thousand per month arrive in the waters of the Colony from places on the China coast.

23,056 junks, sampans and other small craft belonging to the Colony were registered in 1928 and these in their constant passing to and between different parts of the Colony are undoubtedly of the greatest utility to smugglers, while a fishing fleet of several thousand large junks affords further facilities for smuggling.

The difficulty of controlling the import of contraband by traffic such as the above is well-nigh insuperable.

What can be done in the way of search of disembarking passengers and of vessels is done and the Government has incurred great expense in the provision of sea-going launches to enable an effective patrol to be carried out as far as may be both within the Harbour limits and in the surrounding territorial waters.

7. So far as is ascertainable the profit obtained by the actual smuggler of Profit on opium is not high. The price usually ruling is about $2.00 while the retailer obtains contraband. from $2.80 to $3.50 per tael.

Rapidity of turn-over of capital is the factor which makes the business

profitable.

8. The Chinese have always shown the greatest ingenuity in devising hiding Hiding places for contraband opium.

It has been found in receptacles bolted outside the bottom of a junk, in a bollowed out spar, in a compartment inside a tin of petrol or a jar of wine, in the leg of a bedstead, in a bag of flour, in a woman's hair, in tins of preserved fruit and vegetables and in every conceivable place in which the Chinese can devise means to hide an article the bulk of which is as small as its value is large.

Places.