of Hongkong to be discussed de novo, and informed the Commissioners, as he himself subsequently (January 21, 1843) stated in writing to a Committee of British merchants, that, 'the British Government holding Hongkong could not in any way disadvantageously affect the external commerce of China, because the English Government had no intention of levying any kind of duties there,' and that 'Hongkong was merely to be looked upon as a sort of bonded warehouse in which merchants could deposit their goods in safety until it should suit their purposes to sell them to native Chinese dealers or to send them to a port or place in China for sale.'
This is a point of considerable importance, as it indicates that the free-port character of Hongkong was the preliminary understanding on which the third article of the Nanking Treaty and the cession of Hongkong to the British Crown was now based. The future discontinuance or continuance of the freedom of the port of Hongkong is therefore by no means an open question left to the discretion of the Colonial or Imperial British Governments, but the latter is absolutely bound by the Nanking Treaty, as negotiated by Sir H. Pottinger, to maintain the freedom of the port from all export or import duties of any sort.
It was on this understanding that the Chinese Government issued, with Sir H. Pottinger's express approval, an edict allowing free and unrestricted intercourse to all vessels from treaty ports in China to Hongkong, and vice versâ, on payment of the export or import duties, as well as anchorage or harbour charges, legally due at the ports to which goods may be carried or from which they may be shipped within the Chinese Empire. The Chinese Government having thus acted on the promise of Sir H. Pottinger that Hongkong should remain a free port, the British Government would seem to be bound in good faith to maintain the freedom of the port inviolate.
The Article referring to the cession of Hongkong runs thus: 'It being obviously necessary, and desirable, that British subjects should have some port whereat they may careen and refit their ships when required and keep stores for that purpose,
