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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
-18 JUN 09
[May 22.]
SECTION 1.
503
Mr. Beckett to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 22.)
[19201]
No. 1.
(No. 35. Confidential.) Sir,
Bangkok, April 17, 1909.
IN paragraph 5 of my despatch No. 78, Confidential, of the 10th October, 1907, I had the honour to indicate the probability of the poll-tax on Chinese in Siam, which
has hitherto been a triennial incidence, being converted into an annual one.
I have the honour now to inclose copy of a translation of a Royal Decree dated the 26th March last, which appeared in the "Government Gazette " of the 28th March, making the collection of the poll-tax on Chinese similar to that on Siamese, namely, an annual one of 6 ticals per head from the 1st April of this year, which is the year on which the former triennial collection falls due.
This Decreo is carefully worded, and has, it would appear, two objects in view: (1) to emphasize the policy already expressed in the King's reply in 1907 to the address by the Chinese community (vide my despatch No. 88, Confidential, of the 19th November, 1907) that the Siamese Government regard all the Chinese domiciled in Siam in the light of Siamese rather than of foreigners, and (2) to make it appear to the Chinese in Siam and to the Chinese Government that the change is made for the benefit of the Chinese, and not for mere purposes of increased revenue to Siam.
The advantage of the new system to the Chinese will lie in the fact that the seal formerly attached to the wrist of each tax-payer, and which was resented as a mark of degradation, will give place to an ordinary receipt, such as is given to Siamese tax- payers. On the other hand, the increase of revenue which will accrue to the Siamese Government will be considerable. The actual receipts from Chinese poll-tax for the year of last collection, namely, 125 (1906-7), were 896,399 ticals, which, at 4 ticals per head, gives the number of Chinese tax-payers as very nearly 200,000. The number of Chinese residents, I believe, far exceeds this number, but taking that figure as the basis of calculation, the revenue derivable for a three-year period under the new Decree would be 3,600,000 ticals, as against 900,000 ticals, or an annual profit of 900,000 ticals (70,0001.).
Amongst the nine classes of Chinese who are exempted from the tax are Chinese foreign subjects, servants employed in the foreign Legations and Consulates, and, from the 1st April, 1910, those whose arrival from China dates back less than one year,
This Decree is a radical innovation of a custom which has prevailed during the last half-century, and it will be interesting to see how it will be received when the time comes for the collection of the enhanced tax.
I have, &c. (Signed)
P.S.-Copy to India, Singapore, and Peking.
W. R. D. BECKETT.
W. R. D. B.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Extract from the “ Siamese Government Gazette" of March 28, 1909.
Proclamation notifying the Abolition of the method of collecting the Chinese Poll-tax, whereby a seal is attached to the Taxpayer's wrist, dated March 26, 1909.
(Translation.)
HIS Majesty the King has been pleased to command as follows:----
Whereas the collection of the Chinese poll-tax falls due in this present year of the Siamese era 1.28 (1909-10), and whereas it has been the custom hitherto for the
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