DRAFT.
it
C20
"A fresh Agency has been established at Chefoo so Recently he this year, and it has moreover hean mode clear to the mainosa forargent that His Majesty's Goverment eun only egree not to increase the number of their Agencias if a
imilar undertaking is given by the other Powers."
withdrawal is to take place by agreement with other nation. de to take place concurrently with the withdrawal of all den Post Offices, it might be difficult to resist the con- dut there is no evidence of such an agreement. On the con-
would spear evidant - from the fact that longkong is vill- to contime the service for another year if intsin will agree to are notential loss that the question is purely one of financa.
* difficult without access to the figures to conceive how such a
can have been incurred. But it is possible to con- mies. The "nicipality night for instance probably be will-
de accomodation, or the whole business ol ht be run by "ons lets, as it is other ports, at a small cost. If
ffices can be tapt up, indoad, at rorts Like Charoo, show a proat an increasing port like imtsin ought to t.
-
xông, as a port of call and of transhipm mt, benefits iyea e less degree by nearly all trade bɔtwean China and
Drone. Loritinate infermca, Toreover, that it the imtsin Mendy
closed because it loses, others that arɔ to be continuað rcofit, and than averare right reasonably be taken, still as a rensonable admission that Hongkong carmot fairly be require ad to has the hurden of loss incurred in giving Postel ·dvantages to a community in whose wolfare she is interest x o.. iwlirctly and in dwergo. 1 naithar is it consistent with faimess or recognised
rikkede for a fommunity to be pauriced to pay for the maintonenca its om Post Office. If the proposition were sustained t`et all
fsira nostal facilities should pay for thm, the finance of im Tal Postage would assume a peculiarly complex foce.
It should be rememberut moreovar that the loss Thick ongkong plains is measurably due to the reduction of Colonial postage to 1. and is so far en Imperial responsibility.
*
The trade of Flontsin in so fre as it consists of import ad gatish manufactures, or of row Chinese maturial exported to fest, Britain, is an Imperial interest which it is impossible to disinteg- *to; and the incidental Post:1 expenses should, it is contendan, be
et v es an Imperial charge. If an attempt at disintegration were le, the ampment would be self-wident that "anchester and Bradford Aufacturers derive probably more profit from Cotton and Woollon goods shipped from Great Britain to Tientsin then does the British
erchant at Tientsin who sells them to Chinese; that the ship-buildər
d chipwright of Clasgow aw the shipower of Divecool or London ofit by the carrying trade more than the cant at Tientsin, and that the rɔvenue of Great Britain is morally liable at 1st in that pro- Fertion. Hongkong, for the reasons stated and in the proportions stated, might be exposted to contribute also in her degree. "he argUS mont might be prosecuted indeed, till the proposition apreard absurd.
It is a little rackable, from this point of view, that a nort co important as Tientsin. should be subfentet to disability which its relatively smaller neighbour Chefoo seamingly escapes. Por Tientsin is proving steadily in importance and vill grow more and more as com munications in the great region of North China which it serves are improved. The Customs "ollection at intsin in 1906 reached "nels 0.400,007. (equal to nearly one tenth of the total fustoms. Rayonu) while that at Chefoo was only Tools T8, 322.
The direct Torier trade of Tientsin was Taols 45,246,322. will. that of Chefoo was only Paels 12,713,493.
The total not trade foreign and native was als 112,864,555. while that of Thefoo was only Taels 34,740,267, and that of "haychai itself only "als 168,736,327.