THE CHINESE MARITIME CUSTOMS REMEMBERED: AN APPEAL FOR ORAL HISTORY IN HONG KONG
Luke S. K. Kwong*
The Chinese Maritime Customs has been called "one of the great administrative achievements of the nineteenth century." This favourable appraisal in comparative history could hardly impress nationalistic-minded Chinese, who have since the late-Ch'ing period tended to condemn the same administration as a mainstay of Western imperialist aggressions in China. Chief among their complaints is that for ninety years since its inception in the late 1850s, the Chinese Maritime Customs had been controlled by a foreign Inspectorate, an arrangement which further violated China's sovereign rights in its own revenue matters. While the imperialist character of the Inspectorate is more often assumed than carefully defined, Chinese indignation does point to a real problem in the Service's past history. Not only had the Inspector-general of Customs always been a foreigner, but also, up until the late 1920s, when reform was introduced to improve Chinese personnel representation, nearly all senior posts in the Service had been staffed by foreign employees. It was only after foreign predominance in this respect had ended that more Chinese began to fill such key positions as commissioners and deputy commissioners. By mid-1948, they had come to occupy a great majority of these posts. The experience of these highly placed Chinese who now enjoyed career opportunities previously denied their compatriots, ought to make interesting data for the historical record.
In summer, 1979, this writer had the opportunity to interview three such former officials living in Hong Kong. All are at an advanced age: one is 90 and the others in their early eighties. They had been with the Service for 35 years or more before retiring in 1945 and in the early 1950s, respectively. One of them got to be Port Preventive Secretary at the Canton Customs, whereas the others rose to become full commissioners. Their long careers were
* Dr. Kwong is Lecturer in History, Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.