Enclosure.
0
Chamber of
239
Commerce to d
Ak
Panetary.
R2 15 Jul 321
General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 31st May, 1892.
Sir, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated 20th altimo, having reference to the resolution ananimously passed at the annual general meeting of the members of the Chamber of Commerce, held here on the 8th of April last, deprecating any legislation which would render compulsory the registration of the imports and exports of this Colony.
In compliance with the suggestion contained in your letter, I am instructed by my Com- mittee to submit for the consideration of His Excellency the Governor a statement setting forth the principal reasons on which that resolu- tion is based.
To any one not familiar with the history, pro- gress, and position of this Colony, it will at first glanoo appear surprising that any opposition whatever should be raised to so simple a proposal, having for its aim nothing beyond the recording of trade statistics, which in some form or other is carried out in almost every port of the British possessions,
My Committee, howevor, is of opinion that a closer examination of the business carried on here, and of the unique position which Hongkong oc cupies as a trading and distributing centre, will show that really good reasons exist for asking the Government. to refrain from passing such au Ordinance.
The most important objection is one which auderlies and to a great extent embraces all the others, namely, that an enactment of the nature proposed would be a serious and unnecessary interference with the freedom of the port.
Apart from its excellent and commodious harbour, Hongkong when first occupied was conspicuous ehietly by the disadvantages under which it laboured as a sent for any extensive commerce. Being an island with only a small population, a limited area, producing nothing, and having no large territory immediately co. - nected with it, the principle was clear from the first that only by judicious fostering, excep- tional treatment, and absolute freedom as a port could such a place ever become an emporium [of any description of trade.
As the most important part of such treatment it was recognized that not only must the Colony be constituted a free port in the ordinary ac ceptation of the term-exemption from Customs duties but that this freedom must also include, as far as consistent with good order, an entire absence of restrictions in all matters connected with shipping, trade, and trading operations.
To its immunity from Customs dues and the comparative absence of vexatious regulations. the existence and growth of Hongkong as a colony are in a great measure due.
My Committee thinks it would not be out of place in this connection to refer to the report of Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed in 1847 "to take into consideration thestate of our commercial relations with China."
Up to 1843 the trade of Hongkong was in a very thriving state, but from that year to 1847, when the above named Parliamentary Report was drawn up, it had dwindled to the point of extinction, owing to excessive and objectionable imposts combined with potty and troublesome regulations.
Among many others, the following deductions from a large mass of evidence were arrived at by the Parliamentary Committee as set forth in its report of 12th July, 1847:----
"From Hongkong we cannot be said to have darived directly much commercial advantage, nor does it seem likely, by its position, to become the seat of an extended commerce.
It has no
considerable
considerable population of its own to feed and clothe, and has no right to expect to draw away the established trade of the populous town and province of Canton, to which it is adjacent. From the only traffic for which it is fitted, that of a depôt for the neighbouring coasts, it is in a great degree debarred, except in regard to the; five ports, by treaties, which stipulate distinctly for the observance of this restriction,
"In addition, however, to these ustural and necessary disadvantages it appears to have la- boured under others created by a system of monopolies and farms and potty regulations peculiarly unsuited to its position and pre- judicial to its progress. These seam to have arison partly from an attempt to struggle with the difficulties in the way of establishing order and security in the midst of the vagabond and piratical population which frequent its waters and infest its coast; and partly from a desire to raise a revenue in the island in some degree ade- quate to the maintenance of its Civil Govern- ment. To this latter object, bewerer, we think it unwise to sacrifice the real interests of the settlement, which can only prosper under the greatest amount of freedom of intercourse and traffic which is consistent with the engagements of treaties and internal order; nor do we think it right that the burden of maintaining that which is rather a port for general in- flaenes and the protoction of the general trade in the China Seas than a Colony in the ordinary sense, should be thrown in any great degree of the merchants or other persons who may be resident upon it."
It may doubtless be urged that the changes" which have taken place since 1847 destroy the applicability of such conclusions as those arrived at by the Parliamentary Committee to Bong- kong as it now is, but after making due allow- ance for the altered circumstances, it seems to my Committee that the relation which this Colony holds to the trade of China and to that of other countries remains practically unchang- sd. Its local consuming power has of course grown with its population, but it continues to all intents and purposes, what it always has been, a depot for the convenient reception and distribation of cargo coming from and destined for other ports; and according to the above report "rather a port for general in. fluence and the protection of the general trade in the China Sens thau a Colony in the ordinary sense."
The bulk of the business carried on here in- cludes something different from mere buying and selling; it has been created by and is depen- dent for its existence on the exceptional facilities afforded for the free and puimpeded handling and movement of goods; therefore regulations which will bamper or in any way render this more troublesome and todions are directly pre- judicial to the main interests of the Colony.
The proposed measure is of a kind very dis tasteful not only to the European but also to the Chinese merchants, who expect to carry on their business with the same freedom which It would be they have hitherto enjoyed. superfluous to enlarge on the importance of the native traffic, ospecially that represented by the junk trade; but the fact of its be- ing so valuable to the Colony makes it specially desirable that great care should be taken to! avoid passing enactments or establishing rules which would tend to divert it elsewhere. Ordinance such as that under remark, which may involve the right of search and the infliction of penalties of non-compliance with its provisions, must necessarily be more or less inquisitorial, howover carefully it may be worked, and it would, in the opinion of my Committee, certainly prove very harassing and possibly lead to some of
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