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in the Treaty port, I waited some time for the officials to inform me that such instruc- tions had been received, From time to time made inquiries of the Customs Taotai on the subject, who, however, invariably replied that no further communication from the Wai-wu Pu had come to hand. Finally, on the 28th June, I addressed a despatch to the Governor (Inclosure No. 2), pointing out that over two months had clapsed since I had last discussed the question with him, and inquiring how matters stood. On the 13th July I received a joint reply from the Foreign Bureau and the Customs Taotai (Inclosure No. 3) stating that they had been instructed by the Governor to communi- cate to me the gist of a further despatch from the Wai-wu Pu on the subject. In the despatch as received by me, however, no reference whatever was made to the question of trading inside the city; it was merely stated that "there had been no intention of imposing any restrictions on trade by foreigners," the additional phrase included in the despatch from the Wai-wu Pu to Sir Ernest Satow-" and preventing them from carrying on business inside the city "being omitted.
After due consideration I called on the Governor on the 25th July to discuss the matter. I stated that the question at issue was the right of British merchants to trade inside the city, and that this was precisely the point which had been ignored in the reply of the Foreign Bureau and the Taotai. The Governor replied that he had merely quoted the Wai-wu Pu's directions, to which it was impossible for him to add anything. I said that I had not asked him to do so, and, producing a copy of the despatch from Prince Ching to Sir Ernest Satow dated the 5th March, I pointed out that the former had explicitly stated that there had been no intention of preventing foreigners from trading inside the city of Changsha. This, I repeated, was the question at issue, and I should be glad if his Excellency would favour me with a statement thereon. The Governor repeated that he could do no more than inform me of the instructions he had received from the Wai-wn Pu; whereupon I asked him if I was to understand that he denied the principle laid down in Prince Ching's despatch--that British merchants were entitled to trade inside the city. He hastened to explain that he was entirely in agreement with it, adding that, although he had not explicitly stated the fact in his despatch, yet he fully admitted such a right. I then produced the despatch which I had received from the Foreign Bureau and the Taotai, and asked his Excellency if he would take it back and amend it by stating that the right of trading inside the city had been recognized by the Wai-wu Pu. He demurred to this, but I pressed the point. Finally he suggested that I should address him again on the subject in writing, when he would let me have a supplementary despatch giving the required assurance. protracted discussion I agreed to this, and prepared a despatch as arranged, which I sent in to the Governor on the 31st July (Inclosure No. 4).
After a
On the 22nd August, having so far received no reply, I wrote a note to the Governor inquiring when I might expect an answer; to which he replied that the drafting of the despatch had been intrusted to the Customs Taotai, and that it would come to hand without fail in a day or two at the outside. On the 1st September, having heard nothing further, I again wrote to the Governor; when, on the afternoon of the same day, I at last received the promised reply (Inclosure No. 5), over a month since my despatch had reached the Governor's hands. On reading the reply, however, I was surprised to find that the assurances given to me by the Governor at my interview with him had been utterly ignored; the new despatch was in all essential points ractically a repetition of the previous one, and not a word was said as to the right of trading inside the city. I immediately addressed a despatch to the Governor (Inclosure No. 6), complaining both of the Taotai's delay in replying and of his breach of faith in failing to give the promised assurance; and I concluded by saying that I could not accept statements which were completely at variance both with his Excelleney's own words as well as with the views of the Wai-wu Pu as expressed to Sir Ernest Satow, and I again requested to be favoured with a clear statement as to the right of British merchants to trade inside the city.
A few days later, when the Castoms Taotai was calling on me, he referred to this question, stating that the delay in replying to my earlier despatch was not due to any wish on his part to shirk the matter, but to the necessity he was under of first aster- taining the views of the gentry and the leading merchants on the subject; and he asked me not to press for a reply to my last despatch. When I expressed astonishment at such a request, he explained that he was in a very difficult position vis-à-vis of the gentry, and was really not a free agent in the matter, I reminded him that, if he was not a free agent, no more was I, and that the responsibility for pressing or dropping the matter did not rest with me. The Taotai then said that, since instructions had come from the Wai-wu Pu that foreigners were permitted to trade in the city, it was unnecessary for the local authorities to give any additional assurances. I agreed that
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the Wai-wu Pu's instructions should certainly be sufficient, but pointed out that, so far, the Provincial officials had not admitted receiving any such instructions. The Taotai then assured me that no hindrances would be put in the way of any British merchants wishing to establish themselves inside the city, but again asked me uot to press for a reply to my last despatch. I, in my turn, pointed out that, if the officials dared not go counter to the gentry in the matter of admitting that certain instructions had been received from the Wai-wu Pu, it was hardly likely that they would venture to oppose the gentry's wishes as regarded allowing British merchants to actually establish themselves in the city, and that it was essential that I should get a clear statement in reply to my last despatch.
A few days later, when I ia my turn was calling on the Taotai, the latter reiterated his assurances that British merchants wishing to set up firms inside the city would meet with no opposition. He further promised that 1 should receive the answer to my despatch in two or three days.
On the 19th September I wrote a note to the Governor pressing for a reply, which two days later came to hand (Inclosure No. 7), Annexed to it was a copy of the Governor's instructions to the Taotai, quoting the text of the communication received from the Wai-wu Pa, which latter included copies of the despatches which had passed between Prince Ch'ing and Sir Ernest Satow on the subject (Inclosure No. 8). The despatch, read in connec- tion with its inclosures, admitted that the right of trading within the city had been con- ceded by the Wai-wu Pu, but at the same time, doubtless in compliance with the wishes of the gentry, brought up a number of the old objections originally put forward. I did not feel, however, that any further refutation was called for, even though it was stated that the officials had endeavoured without success to compel the gentry to give way on the question of mixed residence, and, farther on, possible troubles were held in terrorem over those British merchants who might endeavour to avail themselves of their admitted rights. The tone of this despatch is about as evasive as it could possibly be, consistent with what the officials thought would be sufficiently acceptable, although, in this respect, it is much on a par with the instructious from the Wai-wa Pa, which assuming thein to have been correctly quoted--are very unsatisfactorily worded. The mere fact. however, that the Governor, on my objecting to the tenor of the first two replies sent to me, without more ado directed the Taotal to prepare a third one constitutes in itself an admission that the wording of the Erst two was such that I could reasonably take exception to them. Nor has he ever attempted to deny my reiterated statement that, at my interview with him, he unreservedly admitted the right of British merchants to trade within the city.
There is, however, one point to which the objections again raised by the gentry- such as the dense population of the city and the undesirability of mixed residence-do not apply, and that is the payment of li-kim at the city gates. It has hitherto been impossible for me to raise this question, as British merchants, alarmed by the boycott of Mr. Bennertz, have preferred to pay li-kin and submit to the reduction of their profits, rather than contest the point at the risk of losing all their business. Mr. Watson, who is the local agent both for Messrs. Brunner, Mond, and Co. and for Singer's sewing machines, informed me that he had been directed by his principals at Hankow and Shanghae to avoid above all things any trouble with the gentry, and that Messrs. Singer and Co.'s Shanghae Manager had actually given explicit directions that li-kin was to be paid on all machines entering the city. I am also informed by the Japanese Consul that Japanese goods entering the city have hitherto paid l-kin.
When, however, Mr. Moore, the Manager of the British-American Tobacco, Company arrived in August last in Shanghae on the Company's launch “ Cigarette," with a view to starting business here through the medium of native agents, he consulted me about this matter, as also about the question of obtaining a site inside the city. I informed him that he was under no obligation to pay li-kin, but suggested that if he intended to fight this and kindred questions it was essential that he should have a foreign agent stationed here, at all events for the time being, until all points at issue had been thrashed out and finally settled. Mr. Moore resolved to take this course, and has made arrangements for a Mr. Bauer to reside here permanently as the Agent of the Tobacco Company. So far I understand that consignments of cigarettes are being taken regularly into the city without any objections being raised by the Li-kin Office, although on one occasion Mr. Moore was tollowed by a person styling himself a li-kin runner, who presented him with a bill for li-kin. Mr. Moore, however, refused to pay it without previous reference to me, since when nothing further has been heard of the matter.
The Tobacco Company are also looking about for a suitable site on which to
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