March 31, 1900 }
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT. is such that few people have ever tried it most interested in the question-to wit, the once and fewer still a second time. So merchants of this colony-might be allowed imuch for foreign imports; exports are ex- to express an opinion on a subject so vital actly similar, Then comes the question of to their interests. We have frequently the carrin e of the domestic trade of China, given expression to our opinions of the For instance, a Chinese merchant living at motives and influences which are at work number 3 (Port of Call), and finding steamers
with Sir Lo FENG Lon during his tour passing daily, thinks he would like to send through the manufacturing districts of Eng some of his good■ up to number 7 (so land, and it would be well if everyone there Port of Call), uecessarily passing 5, the saw as clearly through them as did Mr. Treaty Port in doing so. The way he BYRON BRENAN when he confuted the gets treated for daring to send his goods statement that British trade wanted deve- per foreign steamer is this. First of all loping, and asserted, in fairly plain language, lekin is levied at 3 before the goods go on that on, the contrary, it merely wanted to be | board. On arrival at 5, the Imperial Mari- freed from Chinese official corruption to de- time Customs there calculate all the lekin a velope itself on such lines and to such an ex- junk would pay from 3, where the goods were tent that the narrow and short-sighted- shipped to 7 where they are to be discharged, mandarin class to which the Chinese Minis- and collect it; further they collect a full tarifft belongs can have no conception. We duty in addition. On arrival at 7, lekin will said then, and we say again now, that also be collected at that place before they there are men who know, if they will only are released, and to see that this is done stri■- speak out and expose the rotten and dis- gent modes and methods of discharge are graceful condition of the fiscal system of drawn up. In short, the Imperial Maritime that conglomeration of states or provinces, Customs undertake to collect all the lekin which for the sake of terseness the world (and more) which a junk would pay, for a
has hitherto been content to call the Empire commission--the amount of which is a full of China. Meeting after meeting takes tariff' duty-a commission payable by ower place at home of Associations connected with of the goods. It is true that on the West China, and, if we may judge by the reports River these regulations have to some extent that reach us of the speeches made, they been allowed to lapse, but that is chiefly seem to consist of nothing more than con- owing to the impossibility the Customs And gratulatory phrases echoed from one mem- in getting any information out of the pro- ber to another. To take a case in point, at vincial officials as to the amount leviable, the dinner we have just referred to, no more and may be said to prtake of the nature
able man
was there than Mr. GEORGE of the complant which is said to affect two JAMESON, and yet, instead of supporting of a trade, rather than to prove any consider what Mr. BRENAN said, we find him enter- tion for the unfortunate merchant. But not-taining the company with glowing pictures withstanding this modification the evil is there and on both rivers has worked in calculable harm,
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of the future prospects of British trade, metaphorically patting Lo FENG LOн on the back, and generally helping to sustain the fraud which is being practised on the British public.
The Inland Waters Concession, even in its present abortive form, could be made the weapon to break down this state of things; But however plain spoken the official but no, the Chinese officials are to be allowed class might be it is not to them that we must to iguore this as they have ignored all look for redress. They can, it is true, other things, unchecked and even uncom- considerably add to the force of representa mented upon by the Consular officials in tion by emphasising and supporting with whose hands is entrusted the trading in the weight of their authority such communi- terests of Britain in the Far East, A few cations as it would become their duty to men such as MANSFIELD and Hosie have make to the Government, urged thereto by spoken out and affirmed the whole con- the voice of public opinion. But unless concession, as given to us, to be absolutely public opinion takes a concentrated form and valueless, but the great bulk have exhi-through its representative men insists on a full bited an indifference and apathy only too characteristic of the manner in which the Government have neglected British interests geuerally in the Far East for the past twenty years. It will be well for them to take the lesson to heart or they may wake one day to find that British subjects have been forced to find under a foreign Bag that support for their vessels which they have failed to Aud under their own.
TARIFF REVISION AND HE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
(Daily Press, 30th March.). THE question of Tariff Revision is very properly occupying the attention of the Chamber of Commerce of this Colony, and it is satisfactory to learn from Sir CLAUDE MACDONALD'S reply to the Chair- man's letter, as printed in another columu, that the grave mistake made in the Case of the revision of the Japanese tariff will not be repeated. As we have before remarked, it seems strange that such an important subject should not have called for earlier and more careful consideration than appears to have been devoted to it, and that it was not apparently until Mr. WEYON called attention to the matter that a communication was addressed to the British Minister; requesting that those
enquiry into this matter of Tarif Revision, it cannot be expected that the Government will, on its own initiative, bring pressure to bear on the Chinese. A country gets the government it deserves, and it rests with the people of this colony to see that they get their wants attended to in this ns in other matters, and strong and urgent representa- tions, backed by all the influence that the leading members of the community can bring to bear at home must be the form which it will have to take. The Chamber of Commerce has taken a step in the right direction in approaching the Minister,
It would be well if, at the same time, a Committee, coustituted on the lines ad- vocated recently in these columns, were formed to deal with this thorny and some- what complicated subject. The whole ques- tion of how goods get from this Colony into Chian, what taxes they pay, and where and to whom they are paid, must be thoroughly gone into, and the Government here would do well to put itself at the head of such a Movement. By their help and their help alon can the enquiry be conducted on suf- ficiently searching lines to ensure that nothing tending to throw light on the mat- ter of taxation shall be passed over. The problems which such a Committee would be called upon to face are by no means simple. The question of where and how duties
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are to be paid on goods from here into China must be met and thought out, in the well as in the interests of China her- interests of this place as self The mere shuffling off of the whole thing on the pretext that China, being an independent State, muşt and can take what means she likes to tax goods on entering her colony occupies an unique position in the own territory will not meet the case. This fact that it is a free port on the borders of a State which habitually disregards its treaty obligations. Its prosperity and almost its existence are so bound up with the welfare of that neighbouring State that it cannot afford to see those treaty-rights disregarded; nor can it afford to see such treaty stipula- tions imposed as to make it impossible or even improbable that they will be carried and conscientious men such as would form out. It is only by a body of intelligent the Committee we advocate, that a solution of the knotty points which present them- selves can be arrived at or the Government be placed in possession of such information the Tariff Revision of China in a manner as will enable it to approach the subject of
that country demands it should. which the large interests this colony has in
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THE DYNASTY AND THE POWERS.
(Daily Press, 29th March.) to-day, to the effect that "the Powers are. The telegram which appears in our issue arranging for concerted action in China "in consequence of the disturbed state of explains the message from Shanghai which "the country round Tientsin," seems to we published on the 27th inst., stating that H.M.S. Hermione had sailed suddenly for Taku from Shanghai (whither the Undaunt- ed, which left here on Tuesday has started out), and gives a vastly more probable by the Peking native telegram which said reason for this action than that suggested that two Chinese cruisers had sailed for Singapore, charged with an absurd mission of arresting the refugee Reformers. The latter explanation, in fact, no one seriously entertained. We have no further news of movements directed to the mouth of the Pei-ho River, but if the concerted action to which Reuter's message refers becomes an established fact, we are sure to hear more about Taku, which has always been the point at which China, or rather the Im- perial Government at Peking, has been threatened from the sea.
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intended joint action of the Powers the dis The telegram gives as the cause of the turbed state of the country round Tientsin ; in other words the unchecked domination of the "Boxers," futility and insincerity of the official attempte 'Big Knives," etc., and the to stamp this and similar anti-foreign societies" out.
It is au answer to the policy of ineffectual Proclamation and a hundred blows for the offenders, of whi ́h we gave a description from a northern contemporary yesterday. It is intended to shoy that a hundred blows is not held an cipation in the murder of foreigners. It adequate penalty for parti-
caunot be said that the action has been bastily undertaken. It is many years since Lord ELGIN remarked that the Chinese Government yielded nothing to reason, every❤ thing to fear; yet the resources of di- plomacy have long been exhausted in this matter of the Boxers. To take the case of England alone, even so marked an incident as the absence of every member of the Bri- tish Legation from the Trungli Yamen's Now Year reception, though it provoked much comment, produced no tangible result.
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