11
i
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
8008 [July 28.] &
SECTION 1
479
No. 1.
Memorandum by Mr. Jamieson on River Conservancy at Shanghae.
THE object aimed at by the establishment of a River Conservancy Board is a laudable one, viz., the improvement of water approaches to Shanghae, and in particular the removal of the Woosung Bar. For many years the Chinese local authorities have been pressed to undertake this work, and it is their refusal or neglect that has prompted the present scheme. Primarily the cost of such work should fall on the Chinese Government, but the great expense and want of funds have been the pleas put forward for delay. The foreign Residents, while urging that the tonnage dues levied on foreign shipping, which were intended to meet work of this sort, would be amply sufficient if not frittered away on other objects, have nevertheless been willing to bear part of the cost by submitting to a voluntary tax on shipping and property provided the Chinese Government would undertake the work and defray the balance. Various proposals of this nature have been put forward, more or less informally, within the past few years, the offer of pecuniary aid, however, being not unnaturally accompanied by the condition that the contributors should be substantially represented in the control and management of the works.
None of the proposals, however, ever came to anything, mainly in consequence of the indifference and inertia of the local authorities. The present proposal takes the control out of the hands of the local authorities altogether, except in so far as they may be deemed to be represented by the Commissioner of Customs. So far as efficiency of management goes, the scheme no doubt is better without them, but their exclusion, it may be feared, will not recommend the scheme to the Chinese authorities at the capital. Modifications can, of course, be admitted, and there probably would be no great objection to the local authorities being more fully represented on the Board so long as the substantial management was not taken out of the hands of the foreign members.
One thing is certain-the work proposed is urgently required. The improvement that might be effected would remove what is now a serious tax on shipping, which meaus indirectly a tax on the general trade of the port, and it would enhance the value and importance of Shanghae as the commercial Metropolis of the Empire. And be added that the amount of British capital now engaged at Shanghac is such that it is no longer possible to suffer that it should be endangered by the silting up and deterioration of the waterways through sheer neglect.
G. JAMIESON.
it
may
(Signed)
July 28, 1899.
No. 2.
The Marquess of Sulisbury to Mr. Baz-Ironside,
(No. 141.) Sir,
Foreign Office, July 28, 1899.
I HAVE received your despatch No. 157 of the 10th ultimo relative to the opening of San-tu-ao, in Samsalı Bay, as a trade mart.
I
approve the action which you took in regard to the proposal to levy wharfage dues at San-tu-ao, as reported in your despatch.
I am, &c.
(Signed)
SALISBURY,
[2095 e-1]
T