Mr; Duff—Then I refuge to a know whether you have any right to be here.
Mr, Davenport—Was it the receipt of this threatening letter that prevented one of your witnesses coming here?
Mr, Duff—hey have been waited upon by deputations from the Guild, and great influence has been brought to bear on them, It is a kind of semi-official matter, and they have been told not to take the side of the foreigners, I would much rather have kept the letter in the background, but as the Laotai putes many difficulties in the way as he can, I thought it best to produce it, and L suppose it will be recognised by the Taotai and the others too.
Mr. Darr produced a Chit Mr. Davenport—The letter simply the E-keo hong write to Ho that ho is the cause of all thi trouble, and that the Taotai and Chen and the Br Consul and Vice-Consul are all displeased with Alleu—The Taotai says the books of id_ were asked for at the last hearing, anil that they eau now be produced. pone of the defendants then produced two 00 Mr. Davenport—Would you ask the Taotai to enquire whether there is any entry in those books relating to the purchase of the property in Chinkiang' from Messrs, David Sassoov, Sons & Ca, by the Guild?
he hooks were examined by Mr, Allen, the Taotai, Mr. Kreyer, and Chen, and Mr, Kroyer was heard to say' that they referred to the social and religious proceedings of the Guild Mr. Davenport—'T'ho books which I thought it would be advisable for the Court to see are those which one would naturally suppose would contain an entry of the sale of the property to the Guild, and entries as to the stoppage of foreign trade generally at Mr, Allen—This man (Li Kw says there are no entries of that kind in the books.
Mr, Davenport—They must have a copy of it somewhere, some record relating to the purchase of this property, because it would go into their accounts, Mr, Allen—He says not.
Davenport—You should understand Duff. Li Kwan-chih 3 that the such an entry was wot inserted in the Dookie at. Shan ni was that the property bought at sinkiang, by the Chinkiang Guild.
Mr, Duff—It has nothi to do with the ci kiang Guild at all; itis all one. There wns a stoppage of trade at C for two mouths and ther Mr. Tong Mow-chee was engaged to negotiate between Messrs, D:
soon, Sons and Ca, and the Guild, and the result was that the agreement which has been produced was drawn up. Some of the men who saw that agreement and have their names written on it, declared here at the first ad never seen it, and the principal mover the whole scheme ix not here to-day, Lmean Run-yw (Chin-z00) who is represented here by his son. We want the real men to come, aul this man Ru was one of those Mr. David saw at the Guild Mr, Allen—It turns out to be his son who is here.
Mr. Duff—That is how they deceive They are not represented properly, which largely increases the difficulty to us to point them out.
Mr. Davenport—Are all the others here?
Mr. Duff pointed out some of them and the others he did not know.
Mr. Davenport—want to know where these books are containing these entries. Which of the defendants was it who stated they had not seen the agreement when they had signed it?
Mr, Duff—I am not quite sure, but if you read their names I might remember.
Mr. Allen read the names, but Mr. Duff did not particularise any of them, saying he unilerstood all the defendants denied seeing the agreement with the exception, he thought, of Li Kwan-chih.
Mr, Dulf—Run-yn might as well have sent a table hero as this man who represents him; he knows nothing about it, whereas Run-yn the principal mover in the whole scheme.
Mr, Allen—Do you know that the payment of Tls. 22,000 for the property is divided among nearly twenty po and that is another reason the Taotai says why the entry does not appear in the hooks, Mr. Duff—But in course of one or two years it becomes liquidated, and the whole thing is done with the sanction and under the protection of the Swatow Guild. They have levied an extra tax for the payment of the money, so it will not come out of their pockets. (Ikeferring to a red Chinese document which had been produced.) That document money will he up in a short I believe it says how the money i raised, It (the docu lates th weights, it regulates the trade generally, and it regulates what houses shall buy, It isa tery interesting document to those engaged in foreign trade in China, and would recommend all foreigners to read it carefully. Foreigners are never consulted as to th things, and there is something working—a system, a kind of underground current, beneath each foreign hong that is astonish:
Not a single one of us can trade independently, and the treaty is no good at all so long as this underground system exists, To make the lekin well-known is what we want, and not to make it and it ina way so that the Chinese can LI anyone of us in all foreign imports. Tundertake to say that every compradore in large hongs here doing any trade in opium, have one of those red documents, and they have to work up to it. We are all willing to pay the lekin if it is made general and uniform to affect all of us alike, but we cannot trade when they (the Chinese) can undersell us, and we don't want these underground operations.
The following is translation of the document alluded to by Mr. Duff Rules for the General Boy of Opium Dealers.
The object of our Association is to continue walting profits and to prevent losses in business,. We started with this intention and we meat to carry out our intentions fully. It will be the greatest advantage to us all to me to keep to the (following) agreement h we hare made and to abide by the (following) regulations.
sinkiang is the most important market for the sale of opium. The regulations which we carefully made at the time (when we started in Dusiness there) have been perfectly good ud perfectly henelicial. Messrs. D. Sassoon, Sons, and Ca. g¢ sinkiang has now, how: ever, upset ents, and a hundred vases aul inconveniences have arisen there: from, Furtunately, by means of our combinations, we have been able to put matters straight, and Messrs. D. Sassoon, Sons and Ca. are of their own accord to give up their to retire, We are under the 0 repay them for the loss of their business, and ha raw up regulations Lin this matter, and if_we do of discuss and arrange the affair without del how shall we be able to coutinue on th nurse which we have hitherto followed. Th being the case, the whole number of us former regulation forever hereafter, Shoul Association will examine into the ease a Thus, if there is any adv: we shall gain it, an be prevented, and we shall all obtain limitless prosperity.
following are the various regulations which we have ado—The ciation will buy Mesers. David Sassoon, Sons and Co,'s business at Chinkiang, together with the title deeds for their land and premises in The New Street, (at Chinkiang)." Messrs D. Sassoon, So: and Ca. will never hereafter start business at Chinkiang, and the Association them in return Taels 22,500 of From this sum, however, jing the price of the house and iand, shall be deducted as the share of the Swatow Guild, who are in possession of the property, The remaining sum of Taels 14,500, being the price of the business, ebiall be made
of opium that enters the port, whether the by a payment of one tael on every cheat said opium belongs to Chinese or foreigners, [t is decided that the collection shall begin from the Ist of the 12th month, (December 24th, 1878,) The amount from Chinese opium dealers ehall be collected Shanghai, but the business of the foreign firms shall all be entered at Chinkiang, and they hall pay in proportion to the amount of opium imported there until the amount to be collected is complete, and then this arrangement ceases, 2ud.—Every 1,000 taels of Szechuen and Shignse opiam entering the port (of Chinkian, or Shanghai) shall pay throe mace of Shangha 3rd.—On the Ist of the 12th month, the day on which the collection of ths abov named sum begins, the members of thi Association shall appoint two honest and trustworthy mon to lave solo charge of this iter. It shall be their duty, as soon as a steamer reaches Chinkiang, to go on board the bulk and find cwt how many chests each firm has received, and to make an entry of it in their books. They shall then send the book in which the entry is to the proper firm for the merchant to put his chop" on the curry, so that a statement of accounts may be made' without difficulty at the end of th month, at which time the amount due shi be collected from the firm, In this wa bribery and concealment (on the part of merchant) will be prevented. Should th two "flicials of ours venture to receive bribes, or to make avy concealments, we will at once expose them and ivilict a fine of Taels 100 a chest on them, These fines are recoverable from the headmen who opium not paid for, in order to prevent loss by deferred payments, Sth,—The standard weight of s chest of opium shall be exactly 1,652 ounces. The members of the Association agree to abide by the standard weights in our dealings among ourselves, so that there may be no irregularity Should anyone of our numb in his anxiety to drive larger trad give a larger weight to th standard allows, with the intention of ple his customer, he shall, on detection, be Ts. 100.
6th.—The members of our Asso the customers who deal with them, sbiall not he allowed to cut off musters (from the opium halls). Anyone who disobeys shall be fined Tle. 109, 7th.—It has been the custom for dealers in native opium who come to Chinkiang from other places, to lodge with the merchant with whom they "cal, Old custom allows the mor-chant to deduct tivo taels of Chinkiang sycee as commission on each chest sold by his cus tomer and 30 dollar counts per chest for boat and coolie hire, If the opium has been shipped from Shanghai to the order of the customer, there is also a further charge of five Chinkiang. mace for expenses, If the customer shall dispose of his goods outside, and shall sell and. receive the price of it without reference to his host, the opium shall be weighed by the host, who shall charge one tael a chest for expenses, in order to reimburse himself for lodging his guest.
Sth. Association will report opium to Ue proper (Jekin) office, and take out export permits for customers, The lekin duty is tls. 16.48, Chinkiang sycee, per chest. Ther is also a further charge of Taels 1.12.0 for benevolent purposes and for storage; in all Tis: 17.60 The hong or warehouse in which their customers stay shall make a deduction at this rate from the amount of their guest's purchases from third parties, The hong shall
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.