Sir J. Walsham to the Earl of Iddesleigh(Received October 1.)
(No. 256. Confidential.) My Lord,
Peking, August 12, 1886. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith to your Lordship, in copy, a summary of the proceedings of the Mixed Commission which, under clause 7, section 3, of the Chefoo Agreement of the 13th September, 1873, and clause 9 of the Additional Article to that Agreement, signed at London on the 18th July, 1885, has been holding sittings at Hong Kong for the purpose of inquiring into the question of the prevention of smuggling from the Colony into China.
This summary has been prepared by Mr. Brenan, Her Majesty's Consul at Tien-tsin, who is the Consular member of the Commission, his colleagues being, for China, Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-General of Maritime Customs, and Shao, late Taotai of Shanghae; and for the Colony of Hong Kong, Mr. James Russell, Puisne Judge.
When the Chefoo Agreement, which has only lately been ratified, was drawn up in 1876, there were serious complaints raised by the Governor of Hong Kong against the interference of the Canton Customs' Revenue cruizers with the junk trade of the Colony, an interference that originated the term of the "Hong Kong blockade.”
Of late years, however, these complaints have been far less frequent, and it is probably on this account that, at the opening sitting of the Commission, Mr. Russell, on behalf of the Colony, made a declaration to the effect that, as far as Hong Kong was concerned, there were no grievances to be submitted to the Commission, and it could only be in the interests of China, therefore, that it had been convened.
Consequently, it was for the Chinese Delegates to state the proposals which they might be intending to submit to the Commission.
Eventually Sir Robert Hart explained the details of a plan he had elaborated with a view to the prevention of smuggling from Hong Kong. The necessity for giving effect to it, or to some measure of equal efficacy, had, he said, become all the more urgent in consequence of the increased tax on foreign opium which, in virtue of the Additional Article to the Chefoo Agreement, China would be empowered to collect in future, and which would, of course, be evaded whenever means for avoiding its payment could be found.
Sir Robert Hart's project is given in full in the paper which accompanied the Earl of Rosebery's despatch to Mr. O'Conor No. 47 of the 18th of last February, and although Her Majesty's Government declined to allow the Mixed Commission to take cognizance of some portions of it, they consented to others being brought under the consideration of the Delegates.
Amongst these latter details there was a plan for establishing Chinese hulks in the waters of Hong Kong, which were to be in charge of Chinese Revenue officers. All foreign opium was to be discharged from vessels arriving at Hong Kong and stored on board these hulks, from which it could not be withdrawn until it should have paid the entire duty which China was entitled to levy on it under the Additional Article to the Chefoo Agreement.
Such a project, Mr. Russell informed Sir Robert Hart, could not be entertained by the Colony, as, amongst other numerous defects, it would admit of China taxing, within British jurisdiction, opium proceeding from Hong Kong to Macao, the neighbouring Colony of a friendly Power.
Mr. Russell, having learnt from Sir Robert Hart that he had no other plan to offer, gave him to understand that he would be prepared to recommend to the Hong Kong Government a scheme by which he thought a check would be put on smuggling. The execution of this scheme would, however, be subject to two conditions:-
1. That China should induce Macao to adopt a similar measure.
C. O.
18414
REC?
REG 13 OCT 2
377