[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
66
[February 10.]
SECTION 1.
My Lord,
Mr. Choate to the Marquess of Lansdowne, -(Received February 10.)
American Embassy, London, February 9, 1904.
I HAVE the honour to inform your Lordship that I duly transmitted to my Government the Memorandum, dated the 7th December, 1903, which was handed to me by your Lordship on or about that date, setting forth the points in the British Commercial Treaty with China in respect to which no provision is made in the American Treaty, and that your Lordship's Memorandum has been duly considered.
In the opinion of my Government, the points submitted in the Memorandum refer to matters of domestic concern to China which could not conveniently find place in our Treaty (China's right to legislate on matters of taxes of excise and consumption is unquestioned); Government did not think it advisable to recognize or sanction such taxes by reference to them in our Treaty, and have informed the Chinese Government repeatedly that they held such taxes to be of very doubtful expediency, and discourage their imposition.
As regards machine-made goods manufactured by foreigners or Chinese, either at the open ports or elsewhere in China, and the rebates insured to such goods on exportation, it is the belief of my Government that the export trade of China requires to be greatly stimulated, and that, without such improvement in its export trade, the import trade must necessarily suffer.
The Arrangement embodied in Annex (B) of the British Treaty, for the allocation of the surtax to the various provincial Governments to compensate them for the loss of li-kin, raises no objection on our part; but here again my Government have regarded this as a purely domestic matter.
It is understood by my Government that this Annex was put in the British Treaty so as to insure the support of the various high provincial authorities to the partial suppression of the system of li-kin taxation provided for in Article VIII of the British Treaty.
Article IV of the American Treaty provides for a total abolition of this system, and it was found necessary to secure the support of the various Viceroys by the inclusion of an Annex similar to that of the British Treaty.
Since His Majesty's Government, much to the satisfaction of my Government, seem not disinclined to enter into an exchange of views on the provisions of our respective Commercial Treaties with China, I am instructed to avail myself of the earliest opportunity to inform your Lordship of the opinion of my Government that the commercial Articles of the British Treaty of the 5th September, 1902, and of the Japanese and American Treaties of the 8th October, 1903, not only do not conflict in any of their provisions, but very happily complement each other, and that it is the sincere hope of the President that His Majesty's Government will use their best efforts, as will the Government of the United States, to secure the acceptance by the other Powers having Treaty relations with China of the surtax provided for in Article VIII of the British Treaty and Article IV of the American Treaty on foreign imports, so that the Chinese Government may promptly undertake the various administrative reforms necessary to the abolition of the present system of li-kin taxation.
I have, &c.
(Signed) JOSEPH H. CHOATE.
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