September 30, 1899.7
To H
O. Bax-Ironside Esq., H.B.M. Charge d'Affaires, Peking.
THR CONSUL TO THE STEAMER COMPANIES.
British Consulate, Canton 9th August, 1899. Gentleman, In reply to your letter of 7th instant, I beg to inform you that I telegraphed to Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires as requested and that from his reply just to hand it appears that your letter of the 17th Juue miscarried and has never reached him. I am sending him a copy from that in my archives.
As you are laying your grievance before the Chamber of Commerce, it may be of interest to you to read the enclosed copies of two despatches dated June 10 and July 7 respectively, addressed to Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires by me on the subject of the reading which the Imperial Maritime Customs have been pleased to put on the Steam Navigation Inland Regulations.-I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,
R, W. MANSFIELD.
Consul.
P. 8. I shall be obliged if you will communi- cate the above to the Hongkong, Canton & Macao Steamboat Company and to the China Naviga. tion Company,
Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.,
Hongkong.
THE CONSUL TO THE CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES.
British Consulate, Canton, 7th July, 1899. Bir,-In my despatch No. 27 of the 10th ultimo I had the bonour to report that the I.M. Customs had prohibited launches plying under the Steam Navigation Inland Regulations from calling at Treaty ports en route.
This prohibition has now been extended to apply to Kongmoon, Kum Chuk, Shiu Hing: and Tak Hing, mentioned as "places of call' in the West River Regulatious.
I have entered a strong protest against this ruling as being in direct contravention of Re- gulation 1, which says that steamers "may pro- ceed to and fro at will under the regulations, but they must not proceed to places out of Chinese territory." (The italics are mine).
The result of this action, which I can only characterize as arbitrary, is that steamers, under West River certificate, cannot call now, having had their Inland Waters licenses withdrawn, anywhere but at open ports and "places of call," and steamers with the Inland Waters license, though they may pass these places, may not enter them. The whole traffic is therefore split up into two services, and two steamers running over the same ground are required to do the work of one. Under such circumstances. I have no hesitation in saying that the Steam Navigation Inland Regulations are absolutely valueless.
I am powerless locally as the Commissioner of Customs states that he is acting under in- structions from Peking.-I am, &o.,
R. W. MANSFIELD. H.B.M. Chargé d'Affaires, Peking.
H B. M, Consulate, Canton, June 10th, 1899. SIR-Referring to the remarks contained in my despatch No. 16 of the 11th April on the prayer of the Shipping Companies for "the re- scinding of the Inspector General's decision that inter-Treaty port steamers shall not also be re- gistered for inland navigation," I have now the honour to report that about a week ago the In- land Water licenses of the s/s Lungshan and Lungkiang, two British vessels plying under West River certificates between Canton and Wuchow via Samahni, were withdrawn, to their very considerable loss,
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
This is nòt a case where any loss of national revenue is involved, and it is conceded here that the liberty hitherto enjoyed had not led to any
abuses.
It appears to me that the West River Re- gulations, while remaining in force for steamers running to and from Hongkong, might very will be abolished for steamers confined to Chi nese inland waters. The Inland Waters Re- gulations with very slight modifications could be adapted to the whole trade, premising always that the disabilities caused by the present read. ing of the Regulations be removed.
273
at Canton, H. B. M.'s Chargé d'Affaires," and Sir Robert Hart. The latter, referring to the Inland Rules and Regulations, lays it down River,-being from one point of view a contin- that, owing to the hybrid character of the West nation of the sea and a highway leading to the two open ports of Samahni and Wushowfu, and from another an inland water, there are two kinds of trade to be regulated, vix.. inter- port and inland water trade, for which different sets of local circumstances have to be provided. Thus, the foreign steamers plying between Hongkong and Canton and Wachow must be engaged in the inland trade could not be debarred from inland water privileges and those allowed to touch at the ports they pasa en route. Foreign steamers are also handicapped in H. O, Bax.-Ironside, Esq., H.B.M. Chargé can be used for the towage of lighters; the competition with Chinese owned launches, which d'Affaires Peking.
The remarks in Consul Hosie's Report on the Trade of Wuchow under the heading "Taxation of domestic trade " are very much to the point.—I have, &o.,
R. W. MANSFIELD.
THE CHARGE D'AFFAIRES TO THE STEAMER COMPANIES.
Peking, 94th August, 1899. Gentlemen,-Your letter under date Hong; kong, June 17, forwarded under dying seal through Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, and addressed to me, only reached this Legation on the evening of Saturday, the 19th instant.
Referring to my letter to you of the 17th May, I beg to state that I have referred the for Inland Steam Navigation in China to the whole question of the Rules and Regulations Foreign Offee for the consideration of the Marquess of Salisbury, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
I am personally of opinion that the ruling of the Imperial Chinese Customs as laid down in Sir Robert Hart's letter to me of May 12th, copy of which was enclosed in my letter to you inal concession, which was to allow foreign of May 17th, is a fair one, in view of the orig- merchants to use steam vessels for conveyancee of goods in the interior, in places where they
have hitherto been allowed to use native boats.
obtain a share of the native carrying trade of It appears to me that you are anxious to the interior, which trade was not formerly carried on by foreigners using native boats. If this can be done under the existing Regulations well and good: these Regulations ought not, however, to be strained to attain this object.
that it is necessary to separate the two branches The Imperial Chinese Customs have decided of traffic, inport and inland.
This separation seems reasonable when the tion of another are considered, as pointed out consequences which would result from the adop- by Sir Robert Hart.
River and the opening of the Inland waters are The question of the opening of the West separate ones and the two branches of traffic are governed by separate Regulations.
that one branch of traffic cannot be made to It would be regrettable if experience showed pay without the aid and assistance of the other, and a request for a modification of the Rules and Regulations might eventually be based upon that ground, but sufficient time has not, in my opinion, elapsed, nor have sufficient data been, as Jet, forthcoming, to enable me to take notion to obtain such a modification at the present time. I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
H. O. BAX-IRONSIDE,
Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.,
H. M. Chargé d'Affaires. Butterfield & Swire,
*1
and Thomas Arnold, Esq., Hongkong.
THE CHAMBER TO THE COLONIAL #KORETARY.
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 21st September, 1899. Sir, I am instructed to beg you will be good enough to lay before His Excellency the Gov.
ernor statement of the manner in which the
Two or three days later a British owned launch plying under Inland Water Steam Navigation Regulations between Canton and Shinhing on the West River was informed by the Customs that she could not call in at the Treaty port of privilege lately secured by Sir Claude MacDonald Samshui, which she passes en route.
of the navigation by foreign steamers of the This is the logical converse of the ruling of inland waters of South China has been practi. the Inspector General with regard to the Lungcally nullified by the interpretation given to the steamers, but I venture to suggest that it is its Steam Navigation Inland Rules and Regulations reductio ad absurdum. A British vessel run by the Inspector-General of the Chinese Im- ning on a certain line under certain Regulations perial Maritime Customs. passes a number of ports. One of these happens to have been opened by Treaty and this one she is dabarred from entering !
A lengthy correspondence on this subject has already passed between the representatives of the Steamboat Companies, the British Consul
latter carrying the cargo, the former merely supplying the means of propulsion,
As Mr. Mansfield has clearly pointed out, in one of his despatches to Mr. Bax-Ironside, the contravention of paragraph 1 of the Steam ruling of the Inspector-General is in direct Navigation Inland Rules and Regulations, which runs as follows:
"The inland waters of China are hereby opened to all such steamers, native or foreign, Treaty Ports. They may proceed to and fro at as are specially registered for that trade at the
must confine their trade to the inland waters will under the following regulations, but they and must not proceed to places out of Chinese territory. The expression inland waters' is places in the interior (nei ti) in the fourth read with similar meaning to that given for
article of the Chefoo Convention."
Minister, when negotiating for the opening of My Committee are of opinion that the British
vigation, had in view the unrestricted freedom the inland waterways to foreign trade and na- of foreign steamboats to proceed from port to port along those waterways, and not for the namely, interport and inland, navigation to be divided into separate classes,
serious grievance in the fact that some little The Steamboat Companies have a further time after the concession was granted it was allowed to include the right of calling at way ports for passengers, but this privilege wAI, A
Inland Waterways of South China has thus few months ago, withdrawn without any reason being given, and the so-called opening of the
dered it a mere farce. been narrowed down to a point which has ren-
Authorities, the Steamboat Companies, who had In consequence of this action of the Chinese
been induced by this supposed concession to constrnot boats specially adapted for the trade, now find themselves compelled to withdraw some of the vessels and, in effect, to retire
rapid communication. by the provision of better facilities for more from a trade which they had hoped to create
to Her Majesty's Representative at Peking The appeal of the Steamboat Companies has been without effect, but the matter is one of such great importance to the trade of the Colony that they have now requested the Chamber Government through another channel. The to bring it to the attention of Her Majesty's Committee therefore trust that His Excellency the Governor will have the kindness to lay the question before the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who i known to take a lively insterest in all that appertains to the progress of British trade,
As that progress has been checked and thwarted not alone by this open attempt to mis- construe the terms of an agreement but also by the effort to divert trade from foreign steamers by the grant of preferential duties on junk-borne cargo and by the grievous failure of the Kwang- tung Authorities to maintain order on the West River and in the district watered by it, ne resource is left to the Chamber but to place the circumstances in the possession of the Govern ment in the hope that Sir Claude MacDonald will on his return to Peking come armed with definite instructions to take the necessary steps to render this concession a real benefit instas of a hopeless sham.
A copy of the memorandum on this
of inland waters navigation addressed Steamboat Companies to Her Britannic Jesty's Chargé d'Affaires is enclosed for.