H. B. M. Consulate, Canton, June 10th, 1899.
SIR,-Referring to the remarks contained in my despatch No. 16 of the 11th April on the prayer of the Shipping Companies for "the reconsideration of the Inspector General's decision that inter-Treaty port steamers shall not also be registered for inland navigation," I have now the honour to report that about a week ago the Inland Water Certificates of the s/s Lungshan and Langkiang, two British vessels plying under West River certificates between Canton and Wuchow via Samshui, were withdrawn, to their very considerable loss.
Two or three days later a British-owned launch plying under Inland Water Steam Navigation Regulations between Canton and Shinhing on the West River was informed by the Customs that she could not call in at the Treaty port of Samshui, which she passes en route.
This is the logical converse of the ruling of the Inspector General with regard to the Lungshan steamers, but I venture to suggest that it is its reductio ad absurdum. A British vessel running on a regular line under certain Regulations passes a number of ports. One of these happens to have been opened by Treaty and this one she is debarred from entering.
This is not a case where any loss of national revenue is involved, and it is conceded here that the liberty hitherto enjoyed had not led to any abuses.
It appears to me that the West River Regulations, while remaining in force for steamers running to and from Hongkong, might very well be abolished for steamers confined to Chinese inland waters. The Inland Water Regulations with very slight modifications could be adapted to the whole trade, premising always that the disabilities caused by the present reading of the Regulations be removed.
The remarks in Consul Hosie's Report on the Trade of Wuchow under the heading "Taxation of domestic trade" are very much to the point.—I have, &c.,
R. W. MANSFIELD,
H. B. M. Consul.
H. Bax. Ironside, Esq., H.B.M. Chargé d'Affaires Peking.
THE CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES TO THE STEAMER COMPANIES.
Peking, 24th August, 1899.
Gentlemen,-Your letter under date Hongkong, June 17, forwarded under flying seal through Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, and addressed to me, only reached this Legation on the evening of Saturday, the 19th instant.
Referring to my letter to you of the 17th May, I beg to state that I have referred the whole question of the rules and Regulations for Inland Steam Navigation in China to the Foreign Office for the consideration of the Marquess of Salisbury, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
I am personally of opinion that the ruling of the Imperial Chinese Customs as laid down in Sir Robert Hart's letter to me of May 12th, copy of which was enclosed in my letter to you of May 17th, is a fair one, in view of the original concession, which was to allow foreign merchants to use steam vessels for conveyance of goods in the interior, in places where they have hitherto been allowed to use native boats.
It appears to me that you are anxious to obtain a share of the native carrying trade of the interior, which trade was not formerly carried on by foreigners using native boats. If this can be done under the existing Regulations well and good: these Regulations ought not, however, to be strained to attain this object.
The Imperial Chinese Customs have decided that it is necessary to separate the two branches of trade, interport and inland.
This separation seems reasonable when the consequences which would result from the adoption of another course are considered, as pointed out by Sir Robert Hart.
The question of the opening of the West River and the opening of the Inland waters are separate ones and the two branches of traffic are governed by separate Regulations.
It would be regrettable if experience showed that one branch of traffic cannot be made to pay without the aid and assistance of the other, and a request for a modification of the Rules and Regulations might eventually be based upon that ground, but sufficient time has not, in my opinion, elapsed, nor have sufficient data been, as yet, forthcoming, to enable me to take action to obtain such a modification at the present time.
I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant,
H. O. BAX-IRONSIDE,
H. M. Chargé d'Affaires.
Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co.,
Butterfield & Swire,
and Thomas Arnold, Esq.,
Hongkong.
THE CHAMBER TO THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce,
Hongkong, 21st September, 1899.
Sir,
I am instructed to beg you will be good enough to lay before His Excellency the Governor a statement of the manner in which the privilege lately secured by Sir Claude MacDonald of the navigation by foreign steamers of the inland waters of South China has been practically nullified by the interpretation given to the Steam Navigation Inland Rules and Regulations by the Inspector-General of the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs.
A lengthy correspondence on this subject has already passed between the representatives of the Steamboat Companies, the British Consul at Canton, H. B. M.'s Chargé d'Affaires, and Sir Robert Hart. The latter, referring to the Inland Rules and Regulations, lays it down that, owing to the hybrid character of the West River, being from one point of view a continuation of the sea and a highway leading to the two open ports of Samshui and Wuchow, and from another an inland water, there are two kinds of trade to be regulated, viz., interport and inland water trade, for which different sets of local circumstances have to be provided. Thus, the foreign steamers plying between Hongkong and Canton and Wuchow must be debarred from inland water privileges and those engaged in the inland trade could not be allowed to touch at the ports they pass en route. Foreign steamers are also handicapped in competition with Chinese-owned launches, which can be used for the towage of lighters; the latter carrying the cargo, the former merely supplying the means of propulsion.
As Mr. Mansfield has clearly pointed out, in one of his despatches to Mr. Bax-Ironside, the ruling of the Inspector-General is in direct contravention of paragraph 1 of the Steam Navigation Inland Rules and Regulations, which runs as follows:-
The inland waters of China are hereby opened to all such steamers, native or foreign, as are specially registered for that trade at the Treaty Ports. They may proceed to and fro at will under the following regulations, but they must confine their trade to the inland waters and must not proceed to places out of Chinese territory. The expression 'inland waters' is read with similar meaning to that given for places in the interior (nei ti) in the fourth article of the Chefoo Convention.
My Committee are of opinion that the British Minister, when negotiating for the opening of the inland waterways to foreign trade and navigation, had in view the unrestricted freedom of foreign steamboats to proceed from port to port along those waterways, and not for the navigation to be divided into separate classes, namely, interport and inland.
The Steamboat Companies have a further serious grievance in the fact that some little time after the concession was granted it was allowed to include the right of calling at way ports for passengers, but this privilege was, a few months ago, withdrawn without any reason being given, and the so-called opening of the Inland waters has thus been rendered nugatory.
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