THE WES RIVER AND LEKIN QUESTIONS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND To our contemporary it is something new, and having only just discovered it himself he apparently cannot conceive that it may have Reuter's agent at Peking telegraphed to been present to the minds of others time out Londen on the 25th January as follows:-
of mind.. We have always maintained that The Anglo-Chinese Burmah frontier treaty, according to the strict reading of the including the agreement for the opening the payment of import duty and transit of the West River to trade and for
duty ought to free goods from all further taxation whatsoever. That principle, how
unsigned. The Tsung-li Yamen are willing to sign it, but the French Minister opposes this step. He demands that railway con- struction shall be permitted in the pro- vinces of Kwangtung and Kwangsi in order to counterbalance any possible dis- "advantages for French interests which the “opening of the West. River might involve. The French demands have not yet been conceded." In this matter Reuter seems to have had some exclusive source of in- formation, as the intelligence contained in the above has not hitherto been published in any of the foreign or native papers in China, and considering the importance of the subject to this colony Reuter's subscribers here have some reason to complain of the information having been withheld from them. Nor has the vastly more important fact of the subsequent signing of the treaty been reported by Reuter, though we were able, from private information, to publish on the 17th February the welcome news of the early opening of the West River. From Japan papers we learn that on the same date, 17th February, despatch was received at Tokyo from Peking stating that a. Convention has been signed between Great Britain and China, in which the latter agrees to open Goshu (Wuchow-fu?), "Kwangsi, and the boundary between "Yunnan province and Burma has been "determined. China has ceded the land beyond Irdowansan (the Irrawaddy?) This confirmation of the intelligence will serve to dispel any lingering doubts, arising from the silence of Reuter, as to the accuracy of the statement made in our issue of the 17th February.
""
"
(C
treaty
and
THE PO
The Committe Chamber of the corres
ment
[March 11, 1997.
BSIDY
the postal bsidy mittee has been matter and that it is impossi that at present before
ફ
General
he
paration on the part of China for the breach of the existing treaty, still remains ever, has been explicitly abandoned by the an opinion without furth
British Government, and it is held that the transit pass only protects the goods intricate details of the calculations the en route and does not protect them public will no doubt find itself in the same from taxation after they have arrived position as the Committee of the Cham
but taking a broad view of the subject there at their destination and passed into
be little difficulty in arr the hands of a Chinese purchaser. When will, we thin
at a definite opinion that the demand made the peace
negotiations between China and Japan the demand that tran upon this colony is excessive pass goods should be protected from further The Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty taxation was pressed by the Japanese nego received from the three coloni
Treasury state that the total contrib
of Ceylon, tiator LI HUNG-CHANG was able to plead in opposition the position assumed by Great the Straits Setlements, and Hongkong has Britain on this subject and to quote chapter hitherto been less than half the amount with and verse from the blue books, e.g., the state which they can properly be debite ment that" to insure the sale of the goods account of the service, the difference having been borne by the Imperial Exchequer, but to their ultimate consumer with no en- "hancement of cost derived from taxation they "have no doubt the Secretary of State will agree with them that the time has " is a
view which cannot be entertained by Her Majesty's Govern-
"now arrived when the colonies may fairly "ment. There is nothing in the treaty" be expected to pay their full share of the "? We do not think the time has which appears to my Lords to justify "service."
arrived, or ever will arrive, when Hong in such a sweeping demand, "view of the internal taxation to which kong can fairly be expected to pay its full "native goods are subject in China, share of the cost of the service on, the "it would be in their opinion both unjust basis on which the calculation is made. and inexpedient to enforce such a demand, The service is maintained in the interests of the United even if it were warranted by the terms of of the foreign trade "the Treaty stipulations." "Our contem Kingdom, not in the local interesta of Hongkong, and the demand is made sim- porary's representation of this time worn theme as the "true inwardness" of the ply because in the case of a British colony it can be enforced. France and Germany, West River question and the transit pass question in the South can arise only from ignorance of the history of foreign trade in China and an inability to apprehend the present, conditions. The question whc- ther the transit pass should entirely free the goods it covers has no greater applica tion in the South than in the North; it applies to China as a whole, and even In referring to the opening of the West the merchants have so far surrendered River the Shanghai Mercury remarks that the case that instead of demanding such there are "many ways of opening a river, freedom as an existent right they have and this opening of the West River, so expressed their willingness to purchase "far as the information furnished by our it by consenting to an increase of the "Southern contemporaries is concerned, is
import duties. What has been effected an example of the manner in which it by the recent action taken with regard to "should not be done, rather than a model transit passes in Kwangtung and Kwangsi appears that the number of letters charge
for the future. It, in fact, leaves un- has been to place the trade in those pro- “touched, or rather in a worse state than vinces on precisely the same footing as before, the great question of trading with the transit pass trade in the North, "China-that of the freedom of our goods and goods can
now be conveyed into after passing the ports-and will practi- the interior from Canton on the same cally afford to the authorities only a terms as they can be conveyed from Shang- stronger ground for raising up the inevithai, that is to say, they are exempt from able barrier, and still further putting into lekin en route and on arrival at their destina- practice the theories of the Chifu at tion are not subject to any other or higher Wuchow, whose doctrines, we may re-
taxation than goods that have paid lekin. mark, have been very inefficiently with- That the whole fiscal system of China stands drawn' in the recent proclamation of the in need of reform everyone knows, but be remarked, in order to Central Likin Office of Kwangsi. It seems in the meantime to have secured the re- strange, but is nevertheless the fact, that cognition of transit passes in the South, the true inwardness of the matter has where their validity has so long been denied. never been understood in Hongkong either is a distinct and undeniable advantage to by the Government, the Chamber, or the trade. "Press, and the opportunity for establishing it on its proper basis has apparently
The third annual general meeting of share- once more postponed or shelved.
holders in the Shanghai Cargo Boat Co. our contemporary means by the Limited, was held at the office of the Agents,
ardness of the subject-namely, Messrelock & Co., on the lat March to charge
to be placed on the Mr A.
presiding. The repo treaty that goods that have accounts for the past year, were accepted
n was carried ant sit duty shall be passed, and a resolution
ust as well the directors to
V Shanghai umus over
luty
in 1
disci
and over
in during the last thirty year
their disposal, viz., Th
Afinal dividend of 8 r con
amount to be placed to
balance to be carried forward. Th. 1,403.22.
equally maintain mail services to the Far East, more extensive than that of Great Britain, inasmuch as they extend to whereas the British service te Shanghai. Germany does this although she has no colonies on the route from which the can collect contributions to the cost, and we believe it is the case that France makes no such demand on Cochin-China or her other colonies. Great Britain in the same int as her rivals in maintaining an efficient service, and, like them, she is content bear the cost in cases where there are 10 means of collecting a contribution. the tables given in the correspondence
rest
able to Hongkong, on last year's basis, is 1,066,607, and the number chargeab
certain places in respect of which the cost "is borne by the United Kingdom?? 2,224,633. - If it pays the United Kingdom to bear the cost in respect of the latter why should it not also pay her to bear the coat in respect of the correspondence with Hong
referred to kong include, we believe, Shanghai and the other
The
certain
it may
Treaty Ports of China, and he any
that Hongko
misappréhension,- charged with the cost
xcept that
direct
any
rect that time
believed being made
Shang
luded from the
this
should be complicated by any arquable