Britain's 1833 Government of India Act ended the East India Company's legal monopoly on the Canton trade. Amid the diplomatic crisis occasioned by the uptick in opium smuggling and Lord Napier's resort to force to assert his right to act as the British consul in Guangzhou, the Emperor personally expressed disbelief that westerners were responsible for the Chinese-language magazines and broadsides being distributed by the British. Qing subjects were forbidden to teach to the language, and a crackdown was ordered. In 1835, a warrant was issued for Wat's arrest after it was made known to the authorities that he was printing for the British. He had advance warning and fled to the English ships at Lintin Island, whence he returned to Malacca in 1836. His son Ahe was tricked into leaving Morrison's house and arrested in the street; as the boy proved a ready informant, he was kept a long time but treated well. While in Malacca, Liang and Wat caused a "spike" in conversions, netting more than thirty converts in a span of months. When many of these new converts later abandoned the faith, it prompted disputes within the LMS about the meaning and requirements for baptism.