[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[35560]
(No. 198.) Sir,
No. 1.
338
[October 28.]
SECTION 1.
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 28.)
Tokić, September 17, 1907. I REFERRED your despatch No. 152 of the 25th July last on the subject of the Customs staff at Dalny, and the fears expressed by the British-American Tobacco Company of discrimination against foreign goods, to His Majesty's Vico-Consul at
Daluy for any observations he may have to make.
have the honour to inclose copy of Mr. Parlett's reply, in which he states that so far he has found nothing to justify the suggestion that "the Japanese officials of the Customs are likely to discriminate against the goods of nationals other than those of their own country."
(No. 47.) Sir,
I have, &c.
CLAUDE M. MACDONALD.
(Signed)
Inclosure in No. 1.
Vice-Consul Parlett to Sir C. MacDonald.
Dairen, September 10, 1907. I HAVE given my careful attention to the letter addressed by the British- American Tobacco Company to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy of which formed the second inclosure in your Excellency's despatch No. 15 of the 31st ultimo, and I have the honour to state in reply that, after careful investigation, I can find nothing in the action of the Commissioner of Customs up to the present moment to justify the suggestion that "the Japanese officials of the Customs are likely to discriminate against the goods of nationals other than those of their own country."
Inquiries among the British merchants here, one of whom is the agent of the Tobacco Company in question, convince me that the idea of unfair discrimination has not yet entered their heads, and that any complaints they have to make are directed solely against what they consider the dilatory methods of procedure of the Customs establishment. Moreover, supposing even that Mr. Kurosawa's sympathies were with his own nationals, I cannot quite understand what form of practical expression the British-American Tobacco Company expects them to take. The duty levied on cigarettes, whatever their place of origin, is rigidly determined by the Chinese Customs Tariff, with which all merchants in China are presumably perfectly familiar, and
any attempt on the part of the Commissioners either to levy a lower rate than the usual one on cigarettes imported from Japan or to admit them duty free, which are the only two practical methods of discrimination I can at this moment think of, would not only mean the commission of a deliberate fraud against the Government which he serves, but would also be attended with considerable risk of discovery and subsequent inconvenience to himself. It is quite true that the Commissioner of Customs and his assistants are Japanese, but, at the same time, there is on the staff, as private Secretary, an Englishman with long service in the Customs, and there are also Chinese clerks, who are familiar with Customs business and would probably not be slow to detect anything in the nature of dishonesty on the part of their chief. I am also somewhat disposed to infer, from what I have seen of Mr. Kurosawa personally, that he is a gentleman who takes a certain pride in the reputation of the service to which he belongs, but this is a point which I do not want to emphasize.
The question of differential treatment on the part of the Customs naturally leads to the wider one of general discrimination by the Japanese authorities against foreigners, and, with your Excellency's permission, I should like to touch on it briefly.
It has on many occasions, as your Excellency is aware, been asserted both in speech and in print that such a policy is being pursued by the Japanese authorities in
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