475
The Incorporated Chamber of Commerce of Liverpool.
PRIVILEGES OF FOREIGN STEAMERS
894
RECEIVED 11 JAN 1897
TO THE MOST HONOURABLE THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURY, K.G.,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE VISCOUNT CRANBROOK, G.C.S.I.,
Lord President of Her Majesty's Privy Council.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD KNUTSFORD, G.C.M.G.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.
THE MEMORIAL OF THE INCORPORATED CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF LIVERPOOL
Humbly Sheweth-
That your Memorialists have received a series of communications from the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and amongst them an Address from that Chamber to Her Majesty the Queen, wherein it is stated-
1. That since the year 1880 there has been annually passed by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong an Ordinance conferring upon the steamers of the Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes the rights, privileges, and immunities of vessels of war, amongst which, according to another document issued by the Hong Kong Chamber, are the following:--
(a) Freedom from search in British ports, unless sanctioned by the resident representative of the Government to which the vessel belongs.
(b) Non-liability for arrest in a British port at the instance of any civil suit that may be brought against the vessel.
(c) Non-application of the "Habeas Corpus" in the case of any passengers they may carry.
2. That in 1886 and 1887 similar privileges, which are stated to be in excess of those asked for by the Imperial German Government, were granted by the same legislative body to the steamers of the Norddeutscher Lloyd.
3. That such privileges were first given to French Government mail steamers in British home ports in virtue of a Postal Convention made by Great Britain with France in 1856, by which Convention similar privileges were given by the French Government to British Government mail steamers in French and Algerian ports.
4. That these privileges confer a prestige in the eyes of the Chinese upon the Foreign Lines named, and facilitate the business of the Lines to an extent injurious to the interests of British shipowners and carriers of cargo competing with them; that, on the other hand, such full privileges are not enjoyed by any British steamers in French ports.