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502 detectives to discover kidnappers, and in May, 1873, whilst the Macao coolie trade was still going on, these detectives brought almost every day some two or three cases into Court. Two years later a deputation of Chinese merchants agreed (August 9, 1875) with the U.S. Consul, D. H. Bailey, to form a Committee to assist him in ascertaining the moral character of women wishing to emigrate to America, with a view to stopthe manifest abuses connected with voluntary emigration from Hongkong to San Francisco. The Dutch Government at Batavia also made an attempt to start Chinese emigration, under Dutch official management, from Hongkong to Acheen (August 20, 1875), but the Governor refused to sign a warrant or to sanction such emigration, although it was eventually proposed to do away with contracts altogether.

In the old question of the Customs Blockade of Hongkong, the mercantile community had a fertile source of constant irritation. A report of the Chamber of Commerce, published (April 30, 1872) within a fortnight after Sir A. Kennedy's arrival, stated that a Memorial to the Secretary of State, in course of preparation, had not yet been completed, because the Chinese were afraid to give evidence, but that a system of espionage within and a blockade outside the Colony existed. The Chamber also expressed a hope that Sir A. Kennedy would institute a strict inquiry with a view to prevent Chinese in the Government Service from rendering assistance to the Chinese Blockade officers. It was an open secret at the time that these remarks pointed again at the Registrar General's Office, a Chinese clerk of which resigned soon after (June, 1872). What gave the blockade question special importance in the eyes of Hongkong merchants, was the general belief that Sir R. Hart encouraged the Chinese to believe that eventually the English Government might be brought to consent to the surrender of all ex-territoriality rights over Hongkong and to include the Colony in the list of Chinese Treaty ports. Sir Arthur was very slow in taking up this grievance of Hongkong merchants, but at last (December 15, 1873) he appointed a Commission (Ph. Ryrie, H. G. Thomsett, M. S.