210
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
: THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE ON
THE KOWLOON EXTENSION AND THE CUSTOMS,
<c
65
turn in his grave.
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tr
[September 10, 1898.
Government would undertake to obtain and
supply the Customs with correct returns of the cargoes carried by junks, which is scarcely probable, for a proposal for the collection of trade statistics was very em- years ago phatically condemned some by the mercantile community. Espionage is in its nature so repulsive to the average
man that it strikes him as strange that there is no means of suppressing it, but such is the case. Detectives are daily sent from England to France and vice versa and in neither country are they interfered with so long as they do not infringe the law, nor can they be interfered with in Hongkong. The truth may be unpleasant, but it is a truth none the less. Customs spies therefore we will always have with us, unless their occupation is made unremunerative by reason of the Hongkong Government's effectively co- operating in the prevention of frauds upon the Chinese revenue being launched in this colony.
FRENCH GAINS IN CHINA.
| his views as to the arrangements to be made | ployed in that capacity by the Customs are in connection with the removal of the existing paid by results, as they also are when Customs stations, which naturally cannot be employed by the Hongkong Government, allowed to continue in their present positions they may be depended upon to continue- (Daily Press, 3rd September.)
now that the alteration of the boundary their avocations so long as there are any re- In another column will be found some in- has placed them within British territory.sults to be obtained. Nor could the Customs teresting correspondence recently conducted Sir ROBERT HART's reply has not been afford to dispense with the information by the Chamber of Commerce with the made public, but it is reported that the these men furnish, unless the Hongkong Government on the subject of the Kow- loon Extension and the position of the great I. G. was not at all backward in com- Chinese Customs. As to the undesirability ing forward, and that in fact he asked for a of continuing Chinese jurisdiction at Kow-great deal more than he is likely to receive. Whether the Committee of the Chamber of loon city there can be no difference of opinion, but when the Chamber comes to Commerce were in possession of the views deal with the Customs question and the of Sir RGBERT HART at the time they wrote the dispatches published in another column protection of the Chinese revenue it breaks we do not know, but at all events they say altogether new ground. Hitherto the most generally held view has been that it was they "quite concur in the desire to assist "the Chinese Government in the matter so China's business to protect her own revenue
long as it can be done without ham- and that if Hongkong could make a profit
pering the trade or impeding the by smuggling it was quite legitimate
development of the colony." If that and proper to do so. And a good deal of smuggling has gone on, notwith- spirit characterises the negotiations through- standing the provisions of the Opium Con- out there ought to be little_difficulty in vention, the Hongkong
Government arriving at an arrangement. Whatever the through its instrument the Opium Farm nature of that arrangement may be, one being a direct participant therein. The thing is certain, and that is that the Chinese Committee of the Chamber of Commerce Customs can be endowed with no executive functions within British jurisdiction. The now say that while they are invincibly opposed to the continuance in the colony of Hongkong Government may afford them such information as it may think proper as the Customs collectorate of a foreign state they "have no wish to place any impedi- to the trade of the colony to and from ment in the way of that state obtaining China, and the Customs will be at liberty, "its rightful revenue, nor do they desire as they are to-day, to find out as much that a single dollar should be made by the be vested with authority to enforce the as they can for themselves, but they cannot Hongkong Government at the expense of "China." Such an admission as that is payment of dues within the jurisdiction of almost enough to make the late Mr. RYRIE this colony. If as a friendly arrangement But the Committee go any portion of China's revenue is to be further and say that in the matter of opium compulsorily collected within the colony it more could perhaps be done thau is at must be collected by the Colonial Govern ment. Beyond the confines of the colony present by the Hongkong Government
new customs stations will of course be set up in safeguarding the Chinese revenue. The present system of licensing an Opium be examined, fines imposed for breach of the to replace the present ones, where cargoes can "Farmer leaves much to be desired, "and the Committee would suggest that the regulations and so forth, but within the Government should give its considera- colony itself only British jurisdiction can
be exercised. "tion to the formulation of some other "scheme which will not only provide an
the office maintained by the "effective check on the import of the drug Customs in Queen's Road, Sir ROBERT consent to its removal "but will trace it also to consumption or
exportation." We believe the Committee if pressed upon the point, but the Hong- has since been engaged in itself formulating kong Government would have no right The Go- a scheme of the character indicated in the to insist upon its removal. above extract. What the final outcome may
vernment could hardly propose to deport be we cannot say; if it takes the form of a Mr. HILLIER as a person dangerous to the bonded warehouse, which is somewhat akin peace and good order of the colony, and it to a Custom-house, we may hear objections could not do so even if it wanted, because he raised on the ground of the freedom of the is a British subject. The Commissioner of port being threatened; but however that Customs has as much right to rent a house may be, we hope the Committee will find it- and office in Hongkong as any other man, self able to continue its objection to the and to write his despatches and compile his Opium Farm, which is not only a direct in- returns in the said office. There is nothing The Com- fringement of the freedom of the port and contrary to the law in that. an obstacle to the free movement of the missioner and his staff are in just the same passenger traffic, but is also highly objec position as the man in the street; they are tionable on moral and political grounds. vested with no authority exercisable within What is the use of the Hongkong Govern the colony and they enjoy no immunities. ment preaching to the Chinese Government There seems, however, to be some popular about the iniquity of farming out taxes feeling against the existence of the office, when it does the selfsame thing itself? Al- and if the Goverument thinks this feeling we entertain little mommy arrangement that would rid us of merits consideration the Opium Farm would be welcome, even if doubt that Sir ROBERT HART will receive involved some loss of revenue; though it in friendly spirit any representa- The ques not necessarily follow that a more re-tions made to him on the subject. patible means of collection would result in desire for the removal of the Commissioner,
however,
on we believe, rests,
It is supposed that The Committee say they believe some confusion of thought. ́understanding was given to the effect with the disappearance of the Commissioner that the extension of the Colony's bound- espionage also would disappear, but that aries should not prove a source of loss will not be found so in practice. We have to the Chinese
revenue. Nothing of shoals of spies aud informers in Hongkong, that sort appears in the agreement, who will continue to sell their information but presumably something of the kind must to the Customs whether the Commissioner not. There is have taken place, for we believe that Siresides in Hongkong or ROBERT HART was, subsequent to the con-nothing illegal in the calling of a spy or clusion of the agreement, invited to express private detective, and as the gentry em-
$2
loss.
As to
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may
50 me
(Daily Press, 5th September.) While all eyes have been directed to the movements of Russia in the North compara- tively little attention has been bestowed on French movements in the South. A yellow book has recently been issued containing the diplomatic correspondence on the affairs of China for 1894 to 1898. Our Shanghai lished a series of articles on this yellow contemporary L'Echo de Chine has pub- book, reproducing the principal despatches and summarising the general results. Our contemporary is of opinion that France has been fairly successful in her policy, and the opinion is not without warrant. The des patches may be divided into two series, one dealing with the establishment of a sphere of influence, politically and commercially, "and the other with the protectorate of Catholic missions. It is with the first only that we need concern ourselves. Reference is made to the delimitation of the Tonkin frontier, and in giving a despatch upon this subject the Echo remarks that "it is superfluous to
say that the delimitation had been made "in the most favourable seuse for us."
But having marked out the boundaries of her property it was necessary, continues the article, for France to take guarantees against the risk of having troublesome neighbours. "The establishment of a privileged position "in the three provinces bordering upon Ton- "kin-Yunnan, Kwangsi, and Kwangtung "-is a work which, thanks to a succession "of events, the one completing the other, is
e3-
now almost entirely concluded." The Sup-. plementary Commercial Convention of the 20th June, 1895, opened to French trade the three stations of Tonghing, Hokeou, and Szemao, and provided for the tablishment there of French Consular agents. On the 1st February, 1897, in consequence of the opening of the West River obtained by England, M. HANOTAUX instructed M. GERARD "to clain compen- "sations in order to
FR
re-establish the equilibrium thus, disturbed to our de "triment." Instructions were sent from Saint Petersburg to the Russian representa- tive at Peking to support the demands of his French colleague. The energetic action of M. GERARD were crowned with what