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Printed for the use of the Foreign Office. January 1888.
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CONFIDENTIAL.
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REGE 28 JAN
Further Correspondence respecting the Chefoo Convention.
No. 1.
Sir J. Walsham to the Marquis of Salisbury.-(Received January 9, 1888.)
(No. 82. Ext. 27.) My Lord,
Peking, November 21, 1887. WITH reference to your Lordship's despatch No. 85 of the 18th July last, and in reply to your telegram No. 20 of the 19th instant, I have the honour to state that the question of the li-kin charged on kerosene oil imported into China through Hong Kong stands at present as follows.
Since Sir Robert Hart, Inspector-General of the Maritime Customs, took sole charge of the stations near Hong Kong and Macao in April last, the private Chinese li-kin collectorate established in the capital of the British Colony, against which the exporters of kerosene had protested, has been abolished through his intervention. During the saine period, and indirectly due no doubt to the increase of revenue obtained from these native stations by the Canton Government în consequence of Sir Robert Hart's honest administra- tion, the li-kin on kerosene oil within the Canton Province has been considerably reduced, and I have some reason for believing that the import duty on it collected at the stations may also possibly shortly be reduced.
But foreigners could not have claimed either reduction.
Except as regards the taxation of opium, which comes under the Additional Article of the Chefoo Agreement, the stations in the neighbourhood of Hong Kong and Macao are administered not according to Treaties and Treaty Tariff, but according to the Native Tariff and native laws. They have nothing whatever to do with foreign trade, foreign ships, or foreigners.
The kerosene oil if sent in native craft would pay import duty and li-kin according to the Native Tariff, with the incidence of which foreigners cannot pretend to interfere; nor is it under the control of the Inspector-General, who merely collects both taxes at the stations under the Native Tariff, and hands over the amounts to the provincial Cantonese authorities, i.e., the li-kin revenue to the Viceroy, and the import duties to the " Hoppo of Canton, who is a high official specially appointed by the Emperor for duty at this particular port.
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If the oil goes to Treaty ports in foreign vessels the foreign merchant would pay to the Maritime Customs the import duty chargeable under the Treaty Tariff, viz., 5 per cent. ad valorem as an "unenumerated article," and this duty has, of course, not been raised. So long as the oil remained in the possession of the foreign merchant li-kin neither would nor could be charged. It is only after its sale to a Chinese purchaser that li-kin is collected from the latter by native officials, not by the Maritime Customs,
The complaints from Hong Kong on this subject are very misleading. The substance of this despatch has been telegraphed to your Lordship.
I have, &c.
(Signed) JOHN WALSHAM.
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