2
by exemption certificates while being taken from one Treaty port to another, cannot, according to Treaty, be subjected to any further charges in the nature of li-kin.
The Board at the same time asked the two Departments above named to examine into the question and take the necessary action. A reply was also requested.
The reply of the Revenue Council has now been received. They state, in effect, that the practice and rule with regard to foreign goods which have paid import duty, and which are being taken on to another Treaty port, is that an exemption certificate is issued by the Imperial Maritime Customs as a proof that the proper import dues have already been paid, and all customs stations and barriers en route pass the cargo without hindrance on finding it in correspondence with the particulars set forth in the exemption certificate.
With regard to your Excellency's complaint that the Imperial Maritime Customs refuse to issue certificates, the Revenue Council suppose that this must refer to the exemption certificates above mentioned, and they fully agree that these documents must be issued by the Customs in accordance with the usual rates. But they point out that the conditions of rail-borne and water-borne cargo are not the same, and they have instructed the Acting Inspector-General of Customs to draw up for the Council's consideration stringent Regulations to prevent fraud and smuggling to the detriment of the internal revenue.
The Board of Communications for their part state in their reply that they have made an arrangement with the Kiangsu Li-kin authorities whereby a reduction from the Tariff charges is made in the li-kin on rail-borne cargo, but the detailed working of this arrangement still necessitates an examination into the conditions at each li-kin office and the elaboration of Regulations. They have, however, now instructed the Director of the railway, Taotai Chung Wen Yao, to continue the discussion of these particulars, and as soon as Mr. Chung sends in his report the Board of Communications will consider it and transmit the Regulations to this Department. They request, in the meantime, that I will reply to your Excellency in the above sense.
I have the honour, therefore, to make this reply to your Excellency, and avail, &c.
(Signed) Prince CHING.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Memorandum by Mr. Acheson, Li-kin Commissioner, Imperial Maritime Customs, Soochow.
FOREIGN duty-paid imports to be free to any one of the four Treaty ports, Shanghae, Soochow, Chinkiang, Nanking.
Foreign duty-paid imports proceeding from a Treaty port to an inland station to pay one half-duty.
Native goods of all descriptions, with the exception of such as shall have already satisfied a collective li-kin levy, irrespective of their province or ultimate destination, to pay a half-duty for each complete or part section traversed. Thus native goods from, say, Shanghae would pay to Quinsan one half-duty; to Soochow one half-duty; to Wusich two half-duties; to Chinkiang two half-duties; to Lungtan three half-duties; to Nanking three half-duties.
Native goods which have already satisfied a collective li-kin levy to be free.
Transit passes to be recognized in all cases in which they are at present issuable, but the transit fees for goods by rail to be credited to the Railway Li-kin Administration.
All dues to destination to be collected in one sum at the station of departure, and, with such exceptions as are specified in the following rules, to be assessed in accordance with the Foreign Customs Tariffs.
The customs rate of assessment on certain large staples of trade, such as grain, to be revised in accord with present prices.
The present Regulations to be regarded as provisional, and in particular the rates laid down to be open to revision, say, after six months.
Summary of proposed modification of Shanghae-Nanking Railway li-kin as arranged in consultation with the provincial Judge Chu at Nanking:
1. Shanghae, Soochow, Chinkiang, Nanking, are all of them ports for international trade. It is mutually agreed that hereafter foreign imports carried by rail from one of these ports to another shall be dealt with in exact accordance with the Treaties.
2. Foreign imports proceeding inland from an international trading port may pay li-kin or else receive either a half-duty certificate from the Foreign Customs or a quadruplicate Memorandum from the Shanghae branch li-kin office at the option of the merchants.
3. Foreign merchants who are provided with triplicate Memoranda for the purchase of native goods inland must first, on arrival at the barrier nearest to the custom-house of export, proceed to that custom-house and pay the half-duty; after the cargo has been discharged at the custom-house and at the time of export they pay the export full duty. If the goods are carried to an international trading port a coast-trade duty is paid in addition. This procedure refers only to carriage by steamer. As regards the method of levy to be adopted in the case of carriage by rail as now proposed, after Judge Chu has been to Soochow and come to a decision in consultation with the Li-kin (Customs) Commissioners, he will return and submit proposals.
Railway li-kin has hitherto been a 50 per cent. levy. Judge Chu has now granted the request that it should be reduced to a 30 per cent. levy. But, owing to the pressure under which the present Railway Li-kin Regulations were prepared, certain inequalities of treatment remain unadjusted. After Judge Chu has been to Soochow, and revised these after careful examination, he will return and submit proposals.
5. In the case of native goods carried from Shanghae to Soochow the li-kin office has hitherto reckoned four levies, viz., one levy each for the Woosung River (Soochow Creek) district and the Chefung district barrier li-kin, and one levy each for the Shanghae and the Soochow loti. As it does not appear right that loti should be collected at both ends, the li-kin office should be asked to do away with one loti levy, so that hereafter on goods carried from Shanghae by rail to Soochow three levies would be collected, on goods to Wusieh four levies; to Changchow and Tangyang five levies; to Chinkiang six levies; and to Nanking seven levies; and similarly with goods from Nanking to Shanghae.
6. It is now proposed to make arrangements by which the native goods which have hitherto been carried by steamer between Shanghae, Soochow, Chinkiang, and Nanking and have reported to the foreign Customs shall in future be sent by rail. After Judge Chu has been to Soochow, and, in consultation with the Li-kin Commissioner, has come to some decision as to a collection which shall be similar to that provided for by the Customs Regulations, he will return and submit proposals.
7. On cotton, cocoons, and rice the li-kin office has hitherto collected a full 100 per cent. levy. Wusich cocoons were carried by rail last year, and on them the collection must continue to be made in accordance with the existing Regulations. As regards the li-kin on rice, Judge Chu agreed last year to reduce the levy to 80 per cent. But the rice merchants refused to proceed in the matter, alleging that the terms for carriage by rail were still not so advantageous as those for water carriage. Judge Chu will consider how some further reduction may be granted.
8. As regards railway li-kin over the whole line, Judge Chu has already agreed to depute a special officer to administer the collection within the Soochow collectorate. The portion of the line which lies within the Nanking collectorate is very short, and it will rest with the higher authorities to decide whether the Nanking Li-kin Office is to depute a special officer to take charge of it or whether the Soochow Li-kin Office is to undertake this duty in addition.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Prince Ching.
Your Highness,
Peking, May 9, 1908.
I HAVE been much gratified to learn from your Highness' note of the 6th instant that, as a result of correspondence between the Board and the Revenue Council, the latter Department have agreed to the issue of exemption certificates by the Imperial Maritime Customs to cover foreign merchandise which has paid import duty and which is carried on the Shanghae-Nanking Railway from one Treaty port to another.
With regard to the instructions of the Revenue Council to the Acting Inspector-General of Customs to draw up Regulations for the prevention of fraud, and to the instructions of the Board of Communications to the Director of the Railway to continue negotiations with the Kiangsu Li-kin authorities, I have the honour to observe that the precedent furnished by the "Provisional Regulations for the transport of foreign or ...
Page 94
3
either
(No further text is given after "either" as the original scan ends here or is cut off.)