COPY.
Sir,
C.
9
Feking, Rac
Kes! 23 NOV 03
16th. March-1505.
I have the honour to inform Your Excellency
that His Majesty's Acting Consul at Wuchow reports that there
are now four small steamers nominally British owned, which are
engaged in the direct trade between that port and Hongkong and
which are unable to carry all the cargo that they can obtain,
so good is the trade.
Mr. Acting Consul Fox explains that these
steamers being all obliged to fly the Chinese flag, in a trade
with Hongkong worth over five million taels per annum the
British flag is not represented. He draws attention to the fact
that in order to receive the permission of the hongkong Govern-
ment to fly the Red Ensign, these vessels must take out a
national register and carry three certificated European
Officers, and he points out that the monthly profits earned by
a small steamer of 150 tons, such as is best suited to the
trade in question, would not suffice under such conditions to
pay the monthly wages bill.
Mr. Fox sees an anomaly in the fact that
a British steamer of 150 tons may not fly the British flag on
the West River, whereas on the Yangtse steamers five times her
size run from Shanghai with a national register, and not a
single certificated officer on board. He also shows that a
steamer may register as a launch at the Canton Consulate, hoist
the British flag and engage in purely Chinese passenger traffic
in the Delta, but that the same steamer could not carry British
goods and native produce between the fest River and bongkong, without