[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
497
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[7910]
No. 1.
16242
ip-.5 [March 12.},
APR 10,
SECTION 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to Board of Trade,
Foreign Office, March 12, 1910. I AM directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to transmit to you herewith, to be laid before the Board of Trade, a copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's Ambassador at Peking, on the subject of the discrimination in favour of Dairen and at the expense of Newchwang effected by the new tariff of the South Manchurian Railway.
You will observe that the Asiatic Petroleum Company (Limited) have made an official complaint to the Newchwang Chamber of Commerce on the ground that, under the new tariff, the rates on kerosene oil have been made the same from Dairen as from Newchwang to Liaoyang and all stations north of that city, although the distance from Dairen is 127 miles greater than from Newchwang; so that to Mukden, for instance, the largest distributing centre in Manchuria, oil from Newchwang is made to pay more than twice the rate of freight per mile than is paid by oil from Dairen.
It would seem that the interests of Newchwang are seriously handicapped by the advantages in rates of freight per mile given to the port of Dairen by the specific rates to places in the interior, and I am to enquire whether, in view of this later information, the Board see any reason to modify their views, as expressed in their letter of the 23rd December last on this subject.
I am, &c.
* Sir J. Jordan, No. 54, February 18, 1910.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
[2675 m-1]