This Document is the Property of His Brilzunde Mojedy's fover
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[35584]
No. 1.
335
[October 28.]
SECTION 2.
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received Ociober 28.) (No. 222.)
Tokió, October 3, 1907. Sir,
WITH reference to my despatch No. 198 of the 17th ultimo, I have the honour to transmit herewith copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's Vice-Consul at Dairen on the subject of the possibility of the Commissioner of Customs at that port discriminating in favour of his own countrymen to the detriment of foreign
merchants.
It will be noticed that Mr. Parlett states that, whatever ground the British American Tobacco Company have for objecting to the present system, the fact remains that their own agent at Dairen has had so far absolutely no reason to make any complaint.
I bave, &c. (Signed) CLAUDE M. MACDONALD.
(No. 53.) Sir,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Vice-Consul Parlett to Sir C. MacDonald.
Dairen, September 24, 1907. REVERTING to my despatch No. 47 of the 10th instant on the subject of probable discriminatory treatment on the part of the Commissioner of Customs in favour of his own nationals, I have the honour to report that on Sunday last I saw Mr. Lyall, the Commissioner's Private Secretary, and that he was good enough to volunteer certain information, which, though of no great importance, may still be or some little interest, as more or less confirming the statements made by me in my despatch above referred to.
On the general question of discriminatory treatment Mr. Lyall was disposed, so I gathered, to think that, even with every disposition to favour his own people, the opportunities at the Commissioner's disposal for doing so really effectively were small, was, however, in error in overlooking, or rather, in being ignorant of, one direction in which a certain amount of partiality might be displayed.
It appears that in China, where the Customs often find it difficult to enforce their decision on recalcitrant merchants in any other way than by adopting the, to them undesirable, procedure of carrying a case into the Consular Courts, a system of extra- Treaty privileges has been instituted. These are privileges purely, not rights, and are in the nature of incentives to "good behaviour" to be granted or withdrawn at the will of the Customs. By a partial use of his powers of bestowing or withdrawing these privileges, Mr. Lyall seemed to think a Commissioner could, if he wished to do so, discriminate to a certain extent in favour of his own nationals. It might also happen, he said, that Japanese merchants were able to transact their business at the Customs somewhat more expeditiously than foreign, because of the number of clerks of their own nationality employed in the office; but any discrimination in this direction could not be really serious, and was, moreover, in a measure natural owing to the community of language. As far as Mr. Kurosawa personally was concerned, I gathered that his Private Secretary indorsed the remark I had the honour to make at the end of the second paragraph of my despatch in question.
Whatever ground the British American Tobacco Company in London may have for their objections to the present system, the fact remains that their own agent here has so far had absolutely no reason to make any complaint.
I have, &c. (Signed) HAROLD PARLETT.
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