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September 26, 1895.]
ter has taken up a very determined attitude; but the members of the Yamen laugh in their sleeve and allow the Minister to go on ineffectually beating his wings against the impassable barrier that separates him from real contact with them. The suggestion has already been made in these columns that our diplomatic negotiations with China should be placed under the control of the Indian Government. If that be too great a change to make, it would at least be an advantage to select for the Minister to Peking an official who has received his training in India, where a man acquires knowledge of oriental character and experience in the proper methods of dealing with it. Such a man we might expect to find free on the one hand from the subservience and disturbed mental balance which characterise the sino- logue, and on the other hand from the ignorance of the peculiar conditions of oriental diplomacy which seems to render a man fresh from the atmosphere of European courts useless at Peking.
RAILWAYS TO YUNNAN FROM BURMAH AND TONKIN.
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The matter will no doubt be more clearly arranged in the commercial treaty now in course of negotiation between Japan and China. In the meantime it is in- volved in considerable uncertainty. Not a correspondent of one of long ago our contemporaries suggested that goods manufactured at Shanghai and taken to another port, say Newchwang or Chefoo, would have to pay 73 per cent, duty under the coast trade regulations (i.e. 5 per cent. export duty and 2 per cent. half-import duty) while goods imported from abroad at the same ports would only pay 5 per cent. Native made goods would therefore be at a disadvantage in the coast trade of 2 per cent. Mr. BEAUCLERK says nothing about the coast trade, but makes out that in the inland transit trade the home made goods will enjoy an adintage of 5 per cent. The final arrangement, we take it, will be that the goods manufactured at Shanghai or else- where in China will be subjected to an ex- cise tax equivalent to the import duty charged on similar goods of foreign manu- facture and that in the coast trade and in- land transit trade they will be treated on exactly the same
as the latter.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
“demand will be and our superiority in "that articles of native manufacture will, in producing these is not likely to be lost," future, be conveyed to the inland markets so long as we adhere to the manly policy on payment of a transit duty of 21 per cent. "of free trade, which keeps our manufac "ad valorem, as compared with the 77 per "turers always on the alert by making them "cent. (5 per cent. import duty plus 21 per "face all competition." As we have shown, "cent. transit duty) which Manchester and British goods could not be excluded, “Indian goods of a similar kind are obliged to because the French line will not be and pay in order to reach the same destination." never can be the only means of ingress to In that case not only would foreign goods Western China. On the one side we have have to contend with the difficulties result- the Bhamo route, on the other side the ing from the appreciation of gold, which so West River route, not to speak of the Yang-greatly favours manufacturing industry in tsze route, and if the French refuse to the East, but they would also have to reckon carry British goods the latter will find their with a hostile tariff. England would hardly way to the consuming markets by one or be prepared to assent to the arrangement, the other of these routes according to the nor can it have been what Japan intended, particular district it is desired they should for it would place the mills in Japan at a reach. The West River will doubtless soon decided disadvantage as compared with mills be opened to steam navigation, and in the in China. The intention evidently was that, upper reaches inaccessible to steamers ar- in order to protect the manufacturing in- rangements should be made for conducting dustry in China from the squeeze system, the the trade by junks under the protection of goods should be treated on the same footing foreign flags, as at Chungking. When that as imported goods, not that they should is done the West River route will be able to have an advantage over the latter. hold its own against the proposed French railway to Lungchow, irrespective of tariff siderations. To serve the Western por- tion of Yunnan a railway from Burmah is The treaty recently concluded between in the abstract undoubtedly desirable, but France and China, giving France the right, the time and manner of its construction must amongst other things, to extend her Tonkin be determined by ordinary commercial con- railways across the frontier into Yunnan, siderations. As the Rangoon Gazette says :--- Admitting fully the dependence on rail- naturally directs attention to the oft mooted
ways of trade in land-locked tracts, grant- project of a railway from Burmah to Yunnan. In the last number of the Nineteenthing that primitive and costly modes of "transit through difficult country must al Century Mr. HOLT S. HALLETT has an ar-
ways render trade there insignificant until ticle on the subject, which is traversed by the Rangoon Gazette. It is of course most
railways are introduced, it does not follow desirable that England should not be left be- "that we are to construct a railway right hind in the race for the opening up of new
"into China and Siam straightway. It is markets, but on the other hand it is equally a sounder policy to expend any capital "available for railway extension in our undesirable that we should enter into
own territories alone. There are many competition with our Gallic neighbours in
parts of India and Burmah where rail unremunerative undertakings or in a chase after a will of the wisp. The French already ways are still wanted and to neglect "them to run a railway into China through have a line from Phulangthuong to Langson
a craven panic of the French getting and it is their intention to extend it from the
"there before us would be folly indeed.' latter place to Lungchow. Mr. HALLETT'S great objection to the French line is that In course of time, and not a very long time, British goods would be shut out by hostile the railway system of Burmah will by a tariffs. So far as the Langchow line is natural process of development reach the
terms The Chinese frontier and it can then be extended concerned that could not be the case. West River route would compete with as circumstances require. The French may it and if the French chose to shut run their line into Yunnan first-and pay out British goods the only effect would for it but they will have no monopoly of be that they would deprive themselves the traffic. If France is accorded permission of a lucrative traffic. They could refuse to to run railways into Yunnan England will equal right to extend her lines across carry the goods, but they could not shut have an them out, though they would be very glad the frontier from Burmah, and she will to do so if they could. In the case of the naturally do so as soon as the trade seems to Red River route they have chosen to cater require it. At present there would be little for the traffic and the bulk of the goods prospect of such a line as Mr. HoLT HALLETT going by that route are British. Had they recommends paying its working expenses. chosen to shut out foreign goods by hostile tariffs the Red River route would have been practically unused. Our Rangoon contem- porary says: While the French line was the only means of ingress to Western China our goods would be excluded, but im- mediately we completed our own line this "barrier of the French hostile tariffs would cease to operate, French and British manu- "factures would be competing more or less on even terms again, and there can be "little doubt of what the result would be. "The great bulk of the trade would then gravitate into British hands, for the simple that we can supply the common and "useful articles the people want more cheaply than the French can do. The things that the French can supply better "than we can, rich silks, perhaps, and other "articles of luxury and fancy, are not likely "to be in much demand in Western China "for many a long day to come. It is for the common and useful articles alone that the
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THE TAXATION OF SHANGHAI MADE YARN AND COTTON GOODS.
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The Manchester manufacturers who have been agitating against the Indian cotton duties will now have an opportunity of turn- ing their attention to China, if Mr. BEAU- CLERK's reading of the Japanese treaty be correct. That treaty provides that "articles manufactured by Japanese sub- "jects in China shall in respect of inland "transit and internal taxes, duties, charges, "and exactions of all kinds, and also in respect of warehousing and storage facili- "ties in the interior of China, stand upon "the same footing and enjoy the same pri- "vileges and exemptions as merchandise imported by Japanese subjects into China." The Secretary of Legation refers to the treaty in his report on the trade, of last year and remarks that the above clause “means
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China has no wish to exempt from taxation the goods turned out of foreign manu- factories in China; on the contrary she would prefer to tax them out of existence; and neither Japan, England, nor any other foreign power has any interest in securing for such goods preferential treatment. that is desired is that the country should be opened to foreign enterprise and that the goods manufactured locally should be allowed to compete on equal terms with those im- ported from abroad.
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THE TREATMENT OF THE BRITISH OFFICIALS AT THE KOWLOON TRIAL.
The Hongkong Telegraph had an extra- ordinary article in its issue on Wednesday under the title of "Official Discourtesy. The article has reference to the recent trial at Kowloon City, and it states that the treatment accorded the official representing the Governor of Hongkong was most con- temptuous." In justice to Hon. Commander W. C. H. HASTINGS, Acting Captain Su- perintendent of Police, and to the mandarin himself, we are bound to take serious notice of the allegations set forth in the article and to show that there is not the slightest justi- Briefly the fication whatever for them.
these-That Commander charges are HASTINGS, as the representative of the