2
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
353
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Memorandum communicated by Sir J. Jordan to Wai-wr Pu.
IN reply to the Memorandum of the Wai-wu Pu, respecting the export from Hunan of 300,000 piculs of rice to Japan for purposes of famine relief, Sir John Jordan has the honour to observe that he sees no objection to this proceeding, provided that the purchase in Hunan of this fixed quantity of rice and its transport to Japan are open to the public competition of all nationalities, and are not restricted to the subjects of any particular country.
Sir J. Jordan would, however, take this opportunity of inviting the attention of the Central Government to the action already taken by the provincial authorities. The provisions of Article XIV of the Commercial Treaty of 1902 have constantly been evaded by the provincial authorities, especially in Hunan, and in the present instance a notification has been issued by the Changsha Customs, Taotai, forbidding the export of rice to any port below Hankow. Such a notification is in conflict with Tariff Rule 5, section 3, which provides for the carriage by British merchants of rice from one open port to another, without restriction to any particular port, and Sir John Jordan considers that it should be withdrawn without delay.
November 2, 1907.
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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(No. 50.) Sir,
No. J.
[December 23.]
SECTION 1.
Consul-General Cockburn to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 23.)
Seoul, November 20, 1907. IIIS Majesty's Ambassador at Tokió has sent me for my information a copy of that portion of his despatch No. 241 on the subject of trade-marks in Corea which relates to this country, and also a copy of the draft Convention relating to the protection of trade-marks in Corea proposed by the Japanese Government.
Articles manufactured in Japan in obvious imitation of foreign goods are freely offered for sale in Seoul, but no complaints reach me from British merchants or manufacturers, the reason probably being that it is thought useless to complain of infringements in Corea when similar wrongs are found to be without redress in the much more important neighbouring market of China. The articles imitated are, moreover, so far as I have observed, chiefly of a kind in which local British merchants do not deal, namely, foodstuffs and beverages of various kinds, many of them professing to be French or Italian, and these deleterious articles are consumed chiefly by the Japanese community. The demand, however, amongst the Coreans for foreign The chief products of this kind is growing and may in time become a large one. local sufferers from the unfair competition are the Chinese storekeepers, for they deal in genuine British products, and might obtain a much larger Japanese and Corean custom if fraudulent imitations were discouraged.
Turning to the question of the extra-territorial rights of British subjects in Corea, which the Japanese Government desire should be abolished, so far as concerns matters relating to trade-marks, it has always appeared probable to foreign observers that sooner or later the Japanese Government would approach foreign Powers with proposals for the establishment of Japanese jurisdiction over foreigners in Corea, and it has been a cause for surprise that so little has been done to pave the way for such proposals by the introduction of appropriate legal machinery. There are at present eleven Japanese officials in the country, excluding the capital, bearing the title of Resident, and exercising judicial authority over their fellow-countrymen of much the same degree as that with which British Consular officers in China and Corea are invested. They are, in fact, Consuls under another name, and at many of the Treaty ports the Japanese Consuls were temporarily turned into Residents when the Residency-General was established. An appointment as Consul in the Japanese service has, however, greater attractions than that of Resident in Corea, for the holder of it has chances of promotion to better Consular posts in other countries, or even to› diplomatic rank, whereas the Resident in Corea has no prospects of advancement. The ranks of the Residents tend, therefore, to be filled by men of an inferior type to that of the Consuls they succeeded.
In addition to the eleven Residents, outside Seoul, there are eighteen Vice- Residents, whose position and powers correspond roughly to those of Vice-Consuls, but in their case also the position is a less attractive one, for the same reason.
The Japanese police authorities also exercise an administrative control over Japanese subjects.
In the capital there is a Resident, with two Vice-Residents, one of whom is specially intrusted with judicial work, and there is also a Court of Appeal from the decisions of Residency Courts, but its powers are inferior to those of the Supreme Court at Shanghae as its decisions are subject to review by higher Courts in Japan.
Amongst the Residents and Vice-Residents there remain a few of fairly wide experience and of sound judgment, but the great majority of them are now drawn from country Prefectures in Japan, and display astonishing ignorance of the special conditions prevailing here, some of them supposing that there is no law for Japanese subjects in Corea, and others going to the other extreme of imagining that even for the native Coreans there is no law but Japanese. That foreign subjects have Treaty rights in the country is probably for most of them an entirely new discovery.
Their main duties are administrative rather than judicial, and in selecting them
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