This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
I
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
[April 29.]
SECTION 1.
86
(No. 118.)
The Marquess of Lansdowne to Mr. Townley.
Foreign Office, April 29, 1903.
Sir,
I HAVE received your despatch No. 73 of the 25th February last relative to the refusal of the Luhan Railway Administration to allow facilities to the Chinese revenue officers in connection with the levy of li-kin on railway-borne goods.
Sir E. Satow, whom I consulted on the subject, suggests that the Chinese authorities might be willing to agree to a compromise, by which the Luhan Administration would be allowed to collect the li-kin in the manner and on the conditions proposed by them, provided permission be given to station a Chinese official within the railway premises, who would be given the necessary facilities for checking the goods, and who would see that none were dispatched by train on which li-kin had not been paid.
I request that you will inform His Majesty's Consul-General at Hankow of this suggestion, and that you will instruct him not to afford support to the Chinese authorities in any proposal as to the collection of li-kin which the administration of the Shanghai-Nanking or other British lines, when completed and working, would not be prepared to adopt.
I am, &c. (Signed)
LANSDOWNE.
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