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the latter's coffers) was seized on by the Hongkong Government as an excuse for vetoing the proposal.
In fairness it must be admitted that the Hongkong Government had no sympathy with the smugglers. At the same time its Police ashore and afloat, were most zealous in seeing that Chinese Customs officers did not infringe the sovereignty of the Colony. (On one occasion they insisted in trying for manslaughter a Chinese Customs officer who had fired on a junk which had fled back into the Colony's waters when pursued by a Customs vessel; in the battle which ensued a fhild on the junk waskilled). And of course mere sympathy with the Dhinese Customs endeavours to suppress smuggling did not help!
trangely enough,, when it suited the Colony, the Hongkong Government could ignore Kwantung Provincial feelings and granted the fullest facilities for Chinese Customs officers to operate freely and collect duty in the Colony itself - at the Kowloon railway station. This is often put forward as a proof of the Colony's willingness to assist. The plain fact is that, without such action, trains on the Canton- Kowloon Railway (the British section of which is owned by the Hongkong Government) would have been delayed at the frontier for Customs formalities, thus ruining its revenue! Finally, the inevitable question arised: if it was practicable for Chinese Customs Officers to operate freely at one sole point in the Colony, why not at other points?
If Hongkong is to remain British it is absolutely essential that the fullest facilities to prevent smuggling from the Colony be given to China; and these facilities should be provided immediately. Otherwise China has the greatest moral justification for demanding the return, not only of the New Territories and the Kowloon peninsula but even of the Island itself.
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