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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)
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CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(26002]
No. 1.
[July 27.]
SECTION 3.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received July 27.)
(No. 271.) Sir,
Peking, June 11, 1908. WITH reference to your despatch No. 155 of the 23rd March last, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Consul at Newchwang respecting the attitude of the Japanese with regard to that port.
From this despatch it appears that the undoubted decline of Newchwang follows automatically from the energetic development of Dalny and the neglect of the Chinese authorities to keep the Liao River in a navigable condition in its upper course. (Confidential.)
In a Memorandum, of which I have the honour to inclose a copy, His Majesty's Acting Consul at Newchwang has recorded a few personal impressions of the situation, political and commercial, in that region which may serve to elucidate the question of rivalry between Dalny and Newchwang.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
(No. 15. Confidential.)
Sir,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1,
Acting Consul Tebbitt to Sir J. Jordan.
Newchwang, May 28, 1908. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch No. 7 of the 19th instant, inclosing copy of a letter from Mr. Wright, of Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, respecting the attitude of the Japanese with regard to Newchwang.
Mr. Wright, in speaking of" our produce," is referring to the export trade in beans and beancake. I find from the trade statistics of this port that of the bean products exported about 80 per cent. goes to Japan and the balance of about 20 per cent. to South China, Messrs. Butterfield and Swire are only interested in the 20 per cent. to South China, as the Japanese themselves carry their 80 per cent, to Japan. In consequence of this large demand for bean products for Japan, the Japanese, to circumvent the middlemen, buy most of their bean products at the place of production, i.e., the country round Tiehling and farther north. These beans, coming south, can either go to Tairen or to Newchwang, at the buyer's option, as the railway cost from that district to either port is the same. Arriving at, say, Newchwang, the beans have to be transported from the station, some 3 or 4 miles from the town, to the vessels or warehouses, either by lighters or carts, so that, by the time the beans are in the ship's hold, a considerable sum has been spent between the station and the ship.
When, however, the beans go to Tairen they are taken by the train right alongside large warehouses, situated on wharves, so that the beans can either be placed direct on board or warehoused next door. The intermediate expenses of Newchwang are thus saved. The South China buyers of bean products thus find it cheaper to obtain the beans at Tairen, and they are therefore beginning to go there. It will therefore be clear that the beans will, apart from other inducements except the equality of the railway freight to either port, cost less by the time they are shipped at Tairen than they will at Newchwang. The steamer freight from either port to South China being the same, it would be immaterial for Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, who are only carriera, whether their ships load at Tairen or at Newchwang, provided they got the same fair treatment at either port.
I am not aware how foreign steamers are treated at Tairen, but there is no doubt that the Japanese, having once induced a tendency for the beans to flow to Tairen, will
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