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་ ་་་ ༞ ས ་་་་ བ-
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I propose to simply acknowledge the receipt of Viscount Aoki's note, and to form him that I have referred the question to your Lordship for instructions.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
Inclosure in No. 1.
Viscount Aoki to Sir E. Satow.
ERNEST SATOW.
Translation.) Sir,
Tókić, July 31, 1899. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's note of the 19th instant on the subject of the imposition of export duty in the Island of Formosa.
It is true that it is proposed to impose export duty on certain articles exported from the Island of Formosa.
your
Your Excellency cites the provision contained in the second paragraph of Article VIII of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Great Britain and Japan, and you perhaps mean that if a Formosan export duty is imposed, the same daty ought also to be levied in the case of the transportation of Formosan products from that island to Japan proper. If that is really your meaning, I regret that Excellency's view and mine with regard to the interpretation of Article VIII men- tioned above differ in some respects. As I understand it, the word "export" means the transportation of goods from the territory of one country to the territory of another country, and am of opinion as regards the provision contained in the last section of the second paragraph of Article VIII mentioned above, that the sense is that no distinction is drawn as to whether the destination of goods exported from one of the two contracting countries is a port of the other of the two contracting countries or a port of a third country.
I take, &c.
(Signed)
Viscount ACKI SHUZO,
Minister for Foreign Affairs.
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