196
for fishermen in the north-east New Territories for the Year 1936, p. J11, where the District Officer notes that "dealers were further encouraged by a reduction in the duty on dried fish" It seems likely that the trade in both fresh and dried fish was affected
31 This is a reference to a scheme introduced by the Customs in 1937 (see Jiulonghaiguan Bainian Dashiji, op cit., sub anno), by which every cow in the border area was to be registered and branded, and a record kept of every time it crossed the frontier All this was part of an attempt to control "smuggling" of cattle—i.e. the buying of new plough animals in the market, and bringing them back to the New Territories villages without paying export duty on them The animals had been taken across the frontier on the pretext that they were crossing the frontier to work fields on the New Territories side
32 Shatoujiao de Lishe, op cit ch 2 I have heard very similar comments from elders in Wo Hang in the New Territories Fees of $20 for a seed-pig, and $20 for a new wok were quoted to me
33 Petition translated in Enclosure 22 to Item 204 (pp. 272-273) in File No. 66 Extension of the Boundaries of the Colony, op cit
34 Shatoujiao de Lishe, loc cit
35 Elder at Wo Hang village
36 Administrative Reports for the Year 1924, Appendix J. “Report on the New Territories for the Year 1924", p. J2
37 The Jiudonghaiguan Bainian Dashiji, op cit has no records of events in the Sha Tau Kok area from 1925-28, suggesting that the Customs records for this period have been lost
38 The District Officer had this to say "Conditions on the frontier, however, gave rise to considerable trouble and anxiety, the undisciplined and licentious conduct of the armed strikers' pickets extending to acts of violence and robbery committed even within our Territories British Sha Tau Kok suffered especially in this respect, so much so that on two occasions at least armed forces had to be summoned to assist, in the first case in August when H.M.S. 'Foxglove' was despatched to recover two junks, laden with merchandise, which had been seized by the "strikers", and later, in November, when troops of the Punjabi regiment were stationed at Sha Tau Kok in order to discourage the armed pickets who were terrorizing the inhabitants of British territory The close of the year brought more peaceful
For the history of the Kowloon Customs, see SF Wright, Hongkong and the Chinese Customs, Inspectorate Series, No 7 (Confidential), Statistics Dept, of the Inspectorate-General of Customs, Shanghai, 1930, SF Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs, Belfast, 1950, and Jiulonghaiguan Bainian Dashiji, op cit. The arrangements of the Patrol Districts and duty Stations were constantly re-ordered; the arrangements mentioned in the text are the standard arrangement for most of the 1920s and 1930s As for staff, establishment and strength figures varied widely, depending on funds—levels of manning were particularly low in the early 1920s, when the Customs were starved of funds, but greatly improved in the 1930s