منتية سنة المالية كثيرة .
HONGKONG AND THE CHINESE CUSTOMS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
(Daily Press, 3rd July.) The official correspondence published in ** The Gasite respecting the arrangements to
made with the Customs for the protec
rote
[July 8, 1899.
perial Maritime Customs Service of China has been exposed to the criticism of the world the representatives of Foreign Powers down to discontented members of the San itself, and it stands to-day in possessjon of world-wide confidence and
tion of the Chinese revenue is unsatisfying tionaries and of the Chinese read the credit so readily accorded to Chin
till in doubt as to the final decision.
China all the assistance that can be reason ably expected in the protection of its re- venue. But although Sir ROBERT HART cannot be given all that he has asked for, it would be a grave mistuke to go to the other extreme, for the colony of Hongkong to play into the
the Native authori ties in their opposition to an honest collection of the duties on trade accord- ing to a fixed and stated tariff. Hav- of the control of the Customs stations surrounding Hongkong by the Foreign Customs, it would be the rankest folly to attempt to throw the collection back into native hands when the stations have to be re- moved in consequence of the alteration of the frontier having brought their old locations within British territory. Whatever shape the final arrangements may take it is clear that goods imported into China from Hong- kong cannot claim to escape payment of duty, and it is to the interest of all honest trade and to the interest of fiscal reform in China that the duty should be collected by the Foreign Customs rather than by the native authorities.
1818-
world's money markets. Sit ROBERT HA was not the creator of the Service, but it in under his administration that it has reached its present high position, and he himself
Government, of his own subordinates, and of all Foreign Governments. Even when the attempt was made recently by Russia to displace him no allegations were made. against him; it was avowelly simply a con- test for political power. Occupying us he does a position of such deserved eminence, does it not seem a little absurd for theso who oppose him on points affecting our local interests in Hongkong to suppose they can advance their cause by throwing mud ?
Inasmuch as it gives only the proposals and suggestions that have been
en made and leaves It will be noted, however, that General BLACK, who o was then administering the ing had more than twelve years' experience enjoys the confidence alike of the Chinesa Government, in his despatch to the Secre- of State of the 29th July, 1898, while strongly recommending that the Chinese Customs should not be formally accorded the right to maintain its office in Hong Kong, mys he thinks the Chinese Govern- ment should be permitted to have an agency In the colony of a purely mercantile char- ater merely for the purpose of issuing opium certificates, unconnected in any way with any other kind of goods and entirely of an unothoial character and beyond the control of any recognised officer of the Chin-
Customs ; that is to say, that the Com- sioner of Customs should not be recognised as a Chinese official but should remain as at resent without official status of any kind.
further despatch suggesting & plan for the collection of the opium revenue Gen-
SIK ROBERT HART AND HIS DETRACIOKS.
BLACK gives as one of the points of
(Daily Press, 3th July.) plan that the Harbour Master should Like all great men Sir ROBERT HART has every evening to the Imperial Mari- his detractors, amongst whom is to be Customs a return of all opium ship-numbered our correspondent"Old China and whither bound, upon which the rial Maritime Customs could arrange the collection of the duty on this amount opium at the port of destination.
In his last despatch, addressed to the Minister at Poking, General BLACK eays :- "I need
hardly add that the suggestion.
аз
to aiding the Imperial Maritime Customs in the collection of opium duties presup- "poses as a sine qua non the total with- drawal of Chinese Customs stations and of their revenue craft from the waters of Hongkong.' The latter suggestion we take it does not preclude the setting up of new stations just beyond the frontier. Such stations being established, the duty on opium as well as on other goods shipped from-Hongkong for import into China would naturally be collected there, and not at the ports of destination, unless indeed the shippers were allowed to pay the duties on opium when they received their export permit, which is what they would like and what seems to have been contemplated by General BLACK in his first desratch. As to payment of the duties at the port of destination, any proposal of that kind would be attended with some danger.
t
M
Hand," to whom the Foreign Customs and all their ways are an abomination. Even 'Old China Haud” himself, however, on reading over his letter which appears in another column must, we think, recognise the absurdity of his present diatribe. He says Sir ROBERT HART "is continually by "his ruling endeavouring to block British "trade and take all the substance out of the "concessions wrung from the perverse "Chinese Government, leaving only a "shadow of the concession obtained, as in "the case of the opening up of inland waters, and who holds out baits with the "intent of establishing his rule within the colony of Hongkong itself." The first assertion contained in the above is at Tt variance with universal experience. implies that Sir ROBERT HART dis- oriminates against British trade, but probably our correspondent meant to say "foreign trade." Now all the foreign firms established in China have dealings more or less with the Customs, and many of them who have branches in other coun- tries are in a position to compare the Cus toms regime in China with those prevailing elsewhere. If a poll were taken on the subject the verdict would be that in few places, possibly nowhere, is the Customs business conducted in a manner which
Sir ROBERT HART is not infallible, and it is not specially by his opinion that the policy of the British Government should be guided, for, filling the position he does, he must necessarily be biassed in favour of according indulgence to China when severity is called for. He has never made any sec- ret of his opinion that China would reform from within and that progress would come naturally and without violent pressure from without. That is now a discredited opinion, and the British Government has discovered, we believe, that in leaning upon Sir ROBERT HART in matters outside his own department they have made a mistake; but as the head of the Customs Service he and ability. It is made a charge against is unimpeachable both as regards integrity
his
him that he fills the Service with favourites. It is the fact that appointment and promotion go by patronage, and that the patronage rests with Sir ROBERT HART, ulso that he has not forgotten to do good to those of his own household, but the manner in which a person exercises any large patronage
with which he may be endowed affords a very good index to his character, and in Sir ROBERT HART's case his nepotism has always been severely tempered by regard for efficiency, The Case is not one in which the introduction of the competitive system could be recom- mended, and if the system of patronage is to prevail it could hardly be exercised Sir ROBERT HART. As to the inimical more wisely or fairly than it has been by
alleges designs which our correspondent all
entertaing against this that Sir ROBERT e colony, what those designs amount to is a scheme for what the Inspector-General con- siders the more convenient collection revenue which is a admittedly leviable by China at her own ports or in her own
The whole of the foreign communities in China are agreed that it would be an excel- at thing if the collection of lekin and all
duties on native trade was transferred causes less delay or inconvenience to the waters. Sir ROBERT HART would like to
Foreign Customs. This, it is univer- admitted and recognised, must be the step in the reform of China's fiscal and that step has already been taken goods imported into China from
by native craft. A
Any proposal back that trade to the rascali- he native collectorate which is at collection of duties at the port
destination
merchant or trader than it is in China. Furthermore, to block trade would be contrary to the interest of the Foreign Customs, and Sir ROBERT HART's detrac- tors allege that he has a keen eye for his own interests and those of the Service over which he presides. It is to the interest of that Service and of Sir ROBERT HART to produce a constantly increasing revenue,
ly cannot
done by blocking trade. The spirit the Foreign HOBERT HART, ns his, Customs are conducted may be gathered
the Chinese side of the from their invaluable annual and decennial the opposite side will not he but on the contrary will be reports, and that the g
Dated into practice is proved by
absence of attempting to reply to his argumen complaints as to the administration of the Bervice, either collectively on the part of the Chambers of Commerce or by foreign mer- ohants individually. For forty years the Im-
come to an arrangement by which that revenue should be collected or protected in Hongkong, and as regards the one urticle of opium, which is the principal article upon which the Chinese revenue is defrauded,
the local Chamber of Commerce has re commended that bonded warehouses should be established in the colony. The details of the scheme are still open to discussion
radores mount to would be a which certainly c
wrong in principle rejudicial to the trade of the colony.
HART's proposals as set out in ondence published it the Gazette found unacceptable, and the Commerce has put forward an proposal for the establishment warehouse for opium, by which i believed the colony will render to
and if in the course of that discussion Sir advocates duty
Case for gthened, ened by by
abuse.
“Old China Hand” allows himself to be so far carried away by his feelings that he is unable to discriminate between sarcasm) and
}