April 30, 1898.1
TAXATION OF FOREIGN TRADE IN CHINA.
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The annual report of the China Associa- tion makes cordial acknowledgment of Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD's success in securing the issue of proclamations by the Governors of Kwangtung and Kwangsi enjoining respect for transit passes in those provinces, but "the Committee felt impelled to protest against the right of terminal taxation "which the proclamations assume. It is "not disguised that the Board of Trade gave away the case in 1868, and that their ruling has weighed on British officials in "China ever since; but it is maintained that "that ruling is opposed to the intention of "the Treaties, and is pregnant with danger
to the interests of commerce.
The "Canton Authorities contributed oppor
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
399
China would move alone. It is scarcely | nese squeezedom are infinite, but with an exaggeration to say that she has, the allocation of a certain proportion of "instead, gone back on every promise the revenue to the provincial governments "she has made; and the Committee venture the danger would be materially diminished.
to suggest that the time has come
"when
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it might be fittingly said to You having been given ample opportunity and having neglected it, we must return to a strict interpretation "of the Treaty and resume the attitude "which you have proved by your conduct "that we abandoned under a mistake.'
FC
to
PLAGUE MEASURES.
obtained." These powers, however, have not been exercised. An Insanitary Pro- |perties Commission was appointed and is understood to have sent in its report to the Government many months ago, but that report was only communicated to the Sanitary Board a few days ago and no action has yet been taken upon it. The same article, after reference to the water supply and drainage system, continued :-" Över "and above all general measures of that "kind, however, there exists the necessity of
From the discussion on plague measures be derived, namely, that prevention is better now proceeding one important lesson may than cure. It is not when the plague is upon us that cleansing should commence; we The unfortunate recognition of the squeeze should hold ourselves in a continual state systern-as unfortunate for China herself as of preparedness. The colony has had abund for the merchants engaged in the foreigu ant warning, but what has been done? trade-ought certainly to be withdrawn, and An area in Taipingshan has been cleared of Mr. GUNDRY by his exhaustive memoran-insanitary dwellings, there has been some dum on the subject has laid the mercantile legislation, and a good deal of talk, but the communites of the Far East under a heavy operations of the cleansing gangs now at work tunely to illustrate the force of the Asso-obligation. But in the present circum-show that, notwithstanding all that has been. "ciation's conteution by presuming to exact
tances it would hardly be possible to done and said, the mass of the people are on kerosine
a terminal tax at the starting revert to the exact position contemplated living in practically the same conditions of "end. As Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD shows when the treaty was signed, in so far as uncleanliness that prevailed in 1894. Talk "in a despatch which the Foreign Office it limited the taxation of foreign goods certain extent is necessary, because it "have courteously communicated, such a to 7 per cent. all told. The merchants is only by intelligent discussion that wise. tax would be nothing less than an have, indeed, already expressed themselves decisions can be arrived at in such matters "addition to the import duty; and as willing to submit to some increase in the as we are now concerned with, but talk "the
demand for an indemnity of fixed rate, provided the goods were thereby should be followed by effective action; yet $10,000-which has since been paid-was
freed from all further levies. There would we find that we are now practically in the accompanied by a warning that any probably be no objection even to octroi if same position as we were four years ago, and repetition of the offence would entail any confidence could be entertained in the that what was written on the subject then "refusal by H.M.'s Government to tolerate honest administration of such a system, might have been with almost equal appro- "additional taxation of any kind beyoud Octroi still exists in some European coun-priateness written yesterday. In an article "the treaty dues." In the appendix is tries and in our own Indian empire, and the which appeared in these columns in October, printed a long and extremely able and dues on merchandise imposed by the Foreign 1894, it was remarked that "there are large interesting meniurandum on lekin by Mr. Municipality of Shanghai are in the nature "districts outside the condemned area whose R. S. GUNDRY, the Hon. Secretary of the of an octroi charge. Such levies, however, sanitary condition is equally defective and Association, which was submitted to the could not be safely recognised under native which equally call for reconstruction. Foreign Office, and for which the Marquess administration in China, as they would "These also must receive attention, and for of SALISBURY conveyed his thanks in infallibly be used for other purposes than "this purpose legislative powers have been rather handsome terms. The memorandum those for which they were nominally in- traces the origin of lekin, quotes the various tended, as is actually the case with the tsoli provisions of the treaties with reference to tax, concerning which Mr. J. W. JAMIESON, the taxation of B.tish goods, and explains in his Wuchow consular report asks:-"Is how the stipulation that payment of import
not a tax the increment of which is merely duty and transit dues should free goods
intended to increase the provincial from all further charges was overcone. revenue as a whole, instead of being, as the The Mandarins claimed to impose what
name is supposed to imply, devoted to the additional taxes they chose, directly the purely local needs of the district where it goods passed out of foreigners' hands at the is levied, an increased import duty? port of entry, or became separated from the Local levies on foreign goods in China transit pass on arrival at their destination. ought therefore to be regarded as entirely This claim was admitted by the Board of inadmissible and every effort ought to be Trade in its celebrated ruling that when made to secure their abolition, the import once the goods have passed out of the duty being increased if necessary to compen foreigners hands they must take their sate the Imperial and local Governments for "chance in common with native goods, and possible loss of revenue; though there pro- "bear whatever impositious the rapacity or bably would be no loss, as the increase of "necessities of Chinese administration may trade that would follow the abolition of the "inflict." An explanation, Mr. GUNDRY squeeze system might more than make up says, may perhaps be found in the circum- for the amount now raised by squeezes. If stances of the day. Mr. BURLINGAME had the lekin and other local charges on foreign just been commissioned to plead the cause trade were every where placed under the of China, and Mr. JOHN BRIGHT was Pre- control of the Foreign Customs, as is about sident of the Board of Trade. The sympa- to be done in certain of the Yaugtsze pro- thies of Mr. BRIGHT with China and the vinces, the objection of dishonest adminis glamour caused by Mr. BURLINGAME'S tration would disappear, but the principle mission are referred to in detail, the of one payment freeing goods throughout subsequent history of the lekin con-
the whole empire should still be urged on troversy is given, and the present grounds of convenience and economy in position is clearly analysed. "The true collection and payment. Whether, in the remedy for lekin," Mr. GUNDRY concludes, event of such an arrangement being ar- "is railways. Goods trains cannot be stop-rived at, it would be necessary to take
'ped and their contents overhauled and "taxed at every barrier a mandarin and "his satellites choose to set up. But railways are not yt; and merchants iu- "terested in developing the commerce of "China may be pardoned for impatience at the abandonment of checks which Lord "ELGIN thoughtfully imposed." In the covering despatch to the Foreign Office the Committee of the Association say: "The " attitude of leniency which was adopted in "1868 was inspired by a mistaken be "lief that, if pressure were suspended,
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enforcing cleanliness inside the houses, for "which purpose some system of periodical "house to house visitation will be necessary. "How to make that system inoffensive to "the Chinese is a problem which should. "command the best attention of the "Government and of all parties who have
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any voice in the matter, for it is essential. " to the commercial prosperity of the port "that living in Hongkong should not be "made distasteful to the Chinese. But if,
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notwithstanding all precautions, the plagu "should unhappily again make its appear
ance amongst us, are the Chinese again to. be driven out of the colony by their fear of falling into the hands of the European "doctors and of having their bodies buried "iu quicklime, and the industries of the 'colony to be again brought to a standstill
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by want of labour? Will there again be "the same opposition to the establishment "of a Chinese hospital, either in the colony
or on Chinese territory, where the sick can "be treated according to Chinesa ideas? "Now is the time when these questions
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some guarantee for the equitable division of the revenue between the Imperial and pro- vincial governments is a question that would no doubt demand attention. Theoretically an independent State should be left to manage its own internal affairs, fiscal and other, but China is not like other independent States. It is contended that unless the provincial governments are ensure a fair share of the revenue there will always be harassing attempts to interfere with the The epidemic from which we are now suffer- trade in foreign goods. Possibly that woulding is not so virulent as the 1894 one, but the be so in any case, for the resources of Chi-authorities cannot claim that that is due to
ought to be considered and satisfactory' answers found for them." Yet here we are, three and a half years later, in the position of having to approach these ques tions almost de novo, and with the colony in almost as insanitary a state as ever.