17. Goods may be repacked for carriage on the Wuchow-Nanning line under Customs supervision.
In case of damage to cargo en route and consequent need of repackage, a report is to be made to the nearest official or barrier, who will inspect the damage done and superintend repackage, entering a suitable note on the certificate, with date and seal, at the same time reporting the occurrence to the Custom-house at port of departure and of arrival. This permission to repack only applies to goods damaged en route, and does not affect the repackage rules of 1866.
18. Duties.-Goods pay import and export duties according to the Treaty Tariff. Goods will pay duty or be exempted from duty as the original covering documents provide.
19. Native produce purchased at Wuchow and shipped from Wuchow to Nanning pays a full export duty at Wuchow and a coast trade half duty at Nanning.
20. With the exception of goods which have paid transit dues, all native produce
on application for export has to produce a Tung Shui receipt.
Goods exported from Nanning will pay a full export duty at Nanning and a coast trade half duty at the port of destination.
Goods intended for export abroad will be dealt with by the Customs at the port of reshipment in accordance with the Treaties and Port Regulations.
21. All steamers, registered lighters, and registered native boats, are to pay tonnage dues according to the Treaties; chartered lighters and chartered native boats are to pay port dues at the rate of 3 mace per ton every four months.
22. Miscellaneous.-Vessels subject to the Maritime Customs may only anchor in such places as the Customs may direct.
23. In certain sections of the river, to be hereafter ascertained, where the channel is narrow or rapids exist, lighters and native boats under Maritime Customs control must form single file with the ordinary Chinese junks, and must not endeavour to pass each other.
After due notification of the localities concerned, any disregard of this rule will entail full responsibility for all the consequences on the vessel infringing it, whether foreign or Chinese.
24. All changes in charter or ownership, laying up of vessels, &c., are to be reported to the Custom House; in the case of foreigners, through the Consul concerned, in order that certificates or registers may be cancelled or amended, and the flag deposited or surrendered as may be required.
When a native boat is being withdrawn from Maritime Customs control and reverts to native taxation, the name and number are to be erased from her bows, and the superintendent will be informed that she has become amenable to local junk regulations.
25. All foreign owned and chartered vessels must report to the Customs and take out Customs papers before proceeding, under pain of confiscation.
26. The flag to be flown by registered vessels is to be red in colour and triangular in shape, measuring 4 feet in width, 8 feet in length at top, 6 feet 9 inches at bottom, and bear the following raised Chinese characters in white :--
關式某商自備船隻旂職第枲號
27. The flag to be flown by chartered vessels will be blue in colour, triangular în shape, measuring 4 feet in width, 8 feet in length at top, 6 feet 9 inches at bottom,
and bear the following raised Chinese characters :-
關式某雇用船隻旂職第葇號
The flags to be flown by both registered and chartered vessels will be provided by the Customs.
28. Steamers, lighters, and native boats trading under Maritime Customs control must report, clear, load, and discharge cargo in the same manner as steamers at other Treaty ports along the coast, and in accordance with the West River Regulations.
29. The Customs officials will be at liberty to seal the hatches and holds of vessels under Maritime Customs control, and seals must not be broken before the vessel reaches the port. Any vessel falling in with a revenue cutter or Customs boat is to
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produce her papers for inspection if required, and Customs employés may be put on board vessels to search them, or acccompany them, for the purpose of surveillance,
30. Infractions of Treaty stipulations and Customs Regulations will entail such penalties as Treaties and the Regulations provide for steamers,
The above Regulations are supplementary to the Regulations of Trade on the West River, and are open to revision when, and if necessary.
Custom House, Nanning,
January 1907.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Consul-General Mansfield to Sir J. Jordan.
" or open
(No. 13.) Sir,
Canton, April 4, 1907. I HAVE already forwarded to you Mr. Consul King's despatch No. 6 of the 23rd ultimo on the subject of the opening of Nanning. A copy of the English version. of the Customs Regulations inclosed therein had reached me a few days previous to the receipt of Mr. King's despatch, from an outside source; and I am strongly of opinion that these Regulations, objectionable as they are in many respects, should not have been published and publicly sold in Hong Kong until they had first been referred to me for submission to you for such action as you should have deemed fit.
Consideration of Mr. King's despatch, and of the Regulations themselves, leaves no doubt as to the fact that the main question is what constitutes the "
Treaty" port of Nanning, which, as I understand, was first opened to international trade by Agreement between Sir Claude MacDonald and the Tsung-li Yamen in 1899 in the same way as Yochow and other ports. There can, however, be no question but that the Chinese Government do not consider Nanning a Treaty port, and that they even go a step further and draw a distinction between the city of Nanning and the foreign Settlement, situated three-quarters of a mile below the eastern or lower end of the business quarter of the city. There are two points which make this perfectly obvious; one is that (vide the Wuchow Consul's despatch) the Nanning Taotai takes the stand that the Kut Hing firm cannot remain the permanent representatives of Messrs. Jardine, Matheson and Co., since they are established in the city of Nanning itself, and not in the foreign Settlement; and I should here state that the Regulations which Mr. King is awaiting are seemingly the Customs publication forwarded in the former's despatch. The second point is to be found in the Chinese version of these Regulations. If a comparison is made between Articles XIX and XX, it will be seen that in the first it is distinctly stated that goods purchased on the spot (LIT) in Wuchow pay a full export duty at Wuchow, and a coast trade half duty at Nanning; n the second, on the other hand, which refers to Nanning, the characters MER are missing. The conclusion to which I have come on the general information which has reached me, and in the light of the Nanning Tactai's ruling as to the Kut Hing firm is that purchase on the spot in Nanning city proper, and export through the foreign Customs established in the foreign Settlement without the production of evidence to show that transit dues or "t'ung shui "-compound inland taxes--have been paid, is impossible. I should here add that temporarily the custom-house, since arrangement of the Settlement is not yet completed, and landslips are anticipated, is situated on the other side of the river, opposite to the Settlement site. Of course, if the foreign merchant buys his goods up country for export via Nanning, irrespective of city or Settlement, since Nauning is an open port "-either he pays transit duty or “tung shui.”
I will now deal with certain of the Regulations seriatim.
Regulation 2, read in conjunction with section (a) of Regulation 1.-Reference to the Chinese text makes it clear that a vessel holding inland waters papers can trade to Nanning and inland places under the Inland Navigation Rules, unless she elects to become a Treaty Power steamer (), and engage in an interport trade, trade, i.e., between Wuchow and Nanning, calling at the passenger stations enumerated in Regulation 13, in which case she surrenders her inland waters papers for cancella-
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