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is not, this Chamber ventures to think, in accordance with the spirit of the new Treaties, which may be taken to authorise the clearance of Teas through the Formosan Customs for foreign ports by any route provided they pay duty according to the Japanese tariff, without being compelled to ship them in the first instance to Japan.
This Chamber, therefore strongly supports the protest addressed to you by the Amoy Chamber of Commerce on the subject, and sincerely trusts that Your Excellency will succeed in convincing the Japanese Government of the inequitable and illiberal character of the step they propose to take, and which, if persisted in, cannot fail to inflict unexpected loss and annoyance on those foreign firms who have for so many years embarked their capital and employed their energies in the development of a trade which they never doubted would remain free from discriminating duties when the Japanese Government took over the administration of the island.
To
I have &c..
(Signed) R. M. Gray,
Chairman.
&c.
His Excellency Sir E. Satow, K.C.M.G..
Her Britannic Majesty's Minister to Japan.