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Commission of Inquiry is agreed to that may examine the interference of Chinese cruizers with the junk trade of the Colony of Hong Kong, with a view to the due protection of the lawful interests of both the Colony and the Chinese Government.
The concessions made by China will prove, in my belief, of great advantage to China, But it must be remembered that this has never been found to be an argument of any value in discussions arising out of foreign trade. On the other hand, I regard them as of considerable significance to our import trade, that in opium included. Four ports are opened, two up the Great River and two u on the sea coast, at which British subjects may reside. Six other ports are opened up the Great River, not for residence, but as ports of call for steamers. At Chung-king, the great mart of Western China, we are authorized to place a Consular Agent to protect our trade. Whenever steamers reach Chung-king, we are authorized to reside there.
These concessions, I say, are advantageous to China. They will incontestably augment her revenue. The benefit, materially, they confer upon us is in the increased opportunity they provide for the distribution of our imports. We insure at four points delivery of our goods for Tariff duty, and at six other points, not heretofore accessible except in Chinese junks, delivery, but from British vessels, as at an inland centre; that is to say, for the additional half-duty that enables us to certificate our imports. Morally, I believe that they benefit us no less. Of the political importance of multiplying points of contact, as a guarantee of better relations, I have spoken sufficiently often. In the exchange I have recommended to Her Majesty's Government, that guarantee is strengthened by the diminution of causes of dispute, of which the collection of abnormal taxation is one of the most fertile.
There is an apparent conflict between the arrangement stipulated in Article I and that in Article VI.
My original list of new ports included other places, notably Yo-chou, in Hu Nan; Ta-ku Shan, in Manchuria, the outport of a coal-field of value; and Shui-t'ung, on the west coast of Kuang Tung. I abandoned the two last because at neither, in the opinion of Mr. Hart, would a Customs agency prove remunerative.
I had not been forgetful of the fact that undue extension of our Consular establish- ment would be unacceptable at home. So long as exterritoriality is a necessity, I am myself opposed to the congregation of British subjects at ports or places at which there is no British authority, or even to the opening of ports so circumstanced to our shipping. We are responsible as much for the control of our countrymen as for their protection. And, as I have observed under Section 2, there are many reasons why, in my opinion, the foreign Customs, a cosmopolitan service, could not advantageously be invested with such powers as would enable them to discharge the duties now discharged by Consuls, British or of other nationality, the office of general control, in fact. But I should not hesitate to entrust them with power to retain a ship's papers while she was in port, and, in the event of a dispute, pending reference to the Consul of her nation; and an arrangement of the kind at subsidiary ports would have much to recommend it. Where, on the other hand, the trade of a port was declared, by competent authority, to be unequal to the support of a foreign Customs establishment, there would be a double reason for not insisting on the access of our shipping to it. I abandoned Ta-ku Shan and Shui-t'ung accordingly.
Regarding Yo-chou I was more tenacious. It is a centre of much importance, and the first argument urged against it, that it is not, properly speaking, upon the Great River, was of no great force. It was not until the last moment, therefore, that I surrendered it, and then under the following conditions. For the reasons earlier given I was myself desirous of definitively closing the case. A similar desire having been more than once manifested upon the other side, I undertook to accept the responsibility of declaring the case closed, provided that, in addition to all other stipulations enumerated, the Grand Secretary Li would consent to the immediate opening of the new ports and places of call specified in the Agreement, instead of leaving this step dependent on the understanding to be arrived at on the subject of port areas and the collection of inland duty on opium. The Grand Secretary showed a fair disposition to meet me half way; but he would still have postponed the opening of the ports for a twelvemonth from the receipt of the Imperial Decree for which I had stipulated, approving the Agreement we were about to sign. I pressed for six months, and the Grand Secretary finally consented, provided that I would withdraw Yo-chou from my list. On these terms I withdrew Yo-chou.
At Chung-king we shall neither reside nor deliver goods in foreign bottoms until steamers can reach the port. My impression is strong that, the rapids notwithstanding, steamers will eventually reach Chung-king. Whether this hope, which I base on the information I have received, be justified or not, another object which I had more
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immediately in view will be answered by the residence of an agent in the city. It is the port of destination to which large consignments of our imports are addressed. They are frequently, though covered by transit-duty certificates, detained en route by the li-kin collectorates, it may be those in the jurisdiction of Ssu Ch'uan, the province in which Chung-king stands, or in that of Hu Pei, through which they have to pass en route westwards. I had but recently a two years' debate over a claim on account of such detention, amounting to upwards of 21,000 taels. This was one of a series of cases defended on the not unusual ground that the goods detained were Chinese owned. It was aggravated by ill-treatment of the crews of the junks carrying the goods which again was excused by the common allegation that these had misrepresented facts. The Tsung-li Yamén, after long debate admitting that wrong had been done, sent down instructions to release the goods. These were not at first obeyed. The goods being at last released, the justice of the claim for indemnity was also in due time admitted; at least it was referred to the collectorate concerned. Then followed a discussion as to which government, that of Hu Pei or that of Ssu Ch'uan, was responsible. In the end, the British merchant interested was approached personally by the official sent down to Hankow from the collectorate to settle the matter; and the matter was then privately settled, I must add to my regret, by payment of something over one-half of the claim, the claimant preferring what he could make sure of down to awaiting the issue of further negotiation on the subject.
The above is a sample of an order of proceeding unhappily not at all without pre- cedent; even at the ports parallel cases could be quoted. But the presence of the Consul is a certain check upon irregularity, and an agent at Chung-king--other advan tages apart that are derivable from his presence there--will, I trust, do much to control it in the Upper Valley of the Great River. So far as the import trade is concerned, I look upon our newly-acquired position at Chung-king as one of the most important of the concessions made.
Independently of the better security it provides against discussions which are never otherwise than unpleasant, it insures an improved distribution of our manufactures at a mart of trade which is to the west what Hankow is to the centre of China. Lastly, it is a point of contact with a large and substantial native community.
The opening of the subsidiary river ports enumerated in Article I, to foreign shipping, was the subject of much discussion. It was finally agreed that they should be opened as calling-places for steamers. There will thus be at these neither resident community nor Consular establishment.
The access conceded to steamers excepted, trade at these ports of call will be con- ducted as it would at an inland centre. Steamers may land or ship passengers or goods, but by means of native boats only, and subject to the regulations in force affecting native trade; that is to say, that the goods they land or ship will be liable to li-kin or other abnormal taxation, just as they would if they were carried in native bottoms, unless pro- tected by a transit-duty certificate. This protection, of course under Treaty, should equally avail them in native bottoms; otherwise, the only difference between the native craft and the steamer at these places is, that the latter may not land export produce for sale. It may carry it from the market at which it is purchased to a stated port for exportation, but may not dispose of it in transitu; that is to say, certificated produce shipped in the steamer is under the same conditions as certificated produce brought by canals or otherwise from an inland market. The boon is the right acquired by our steamers to frequent these places; the consequent increase of facility for trade, and the multiplication of points of contact-a chief source of hope for the future.
The provision in Article II for the definition of a settlement area where none has been previously defined I have said is but a pendant to the provision of Article I, that Her Majesty's Government should be recommended to allow the so-called Concessions at the different ports to be regarded as the area of excmption from li-kin.
The term concession, first adopted at Shanghae, is more or less a misnomer. It is applied, at some ports, as at Tien-tsin for instance, to the tracts of ground which, at the instance of the agents of various Governments, have been marked off as the ground within which their nationals may purchase building sites of the Chinese proprietors. At some ports, as, for instance, at Amoy, ground has either never been marked off at all, or if marked off has been left unoccupied because it was unsuitable. But at no point has the foreign community, of late years, been restricted to a particular plot of ground, be the tenure what it might. The acquisition of such particular plots is for many reasons useful, especially at a new port; but the words, "or at other places," were introduced into Article XI of the Treaty of 1858, which provides for the acquisition of building sites at the open ports, for the express purpose of enabling British subjects,
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