2
just as foreign cloth, though manufactured from cotton yarn, cannot itself be called yarn, and cotton yarn. The duty paid on foreign cloth is not the same as that on cotton there would seem to be a lack of equity in declaring that cigarettes must pay the same duty as "yenssu" (prepared tobacco). The course previously taken by the Shanghai Customs in levying duty on cigarettes as on "yenssu" was no more than a compromise based on analogy, and adopted with a view to avoiding the difficulties of detail involved in un estimate of the value, and the proper course would undoubtedly have been to levy an ad valorem duty of 5 per cent, as on articles not enumerated in the tariff lists. Moreover, as this board has decided, with a view to the encouragement of manufactures, that only the simple levy of 5 per cent. ad valorem should be made, and no further dues imposed, there were fully compensatory advantages, but as your Excellency has debated the point in frequent communications, insisting that duty should continue to be paid as on "yenssu" at the rate of 4 mace 5 candereens per 100 catties, this board has no objection to agreeing to this. But inasmuch as the 5 per cent. ad valorem duty is not paid, the privilege cannot be enjoyed of exemption from further taxation, and the rule applicable to native products must be applied, that if, after payment of export duty there is a re-entry into another port, coast trade duty must be paid, and if there is a further conveyance into the interior, customs dues must be paid at customs stations, and li-kin at li-kin barriers.
As regards the dues previously levied by the Shanghai Customs, if it is ascertained that after export the goods in question did not enter another port, or were not again conveyed into the interior, instructions will be given for the amount to be levied in excess to be ascertained, and it will be returned to the firms concerned in the shape of drawback certificates.
In making this reply for your Excelleucy's information I have the honour to request a reply, in order that the necessary instructions may be issued to the Customs authorities concerned.
I have, &c.
CH'ING.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[1736]
No. 1.
394
7234
[January 16.]
SECTION 6.
MAR
Sir G. Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 16.)
Commercial.}
(No. 6. Sir,
St. Petersburgh, January 11, 1911. I HAVE the honour to forward to you herewith copy of a despatch which I have received from His Majesty's vice-consul at Vladivostock, reporting on the visit paid in 1910 to Eastern Siberia by the governor of the province of Tomsk for the purpose of studying the economic and political situation of the country.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
GEORGE W. BUCHANAN,
Vice-Consul Hodgson to Sir G. Buchanan.
(No. 27.) sir,
Vladivostock, December 30, 1910. IN the early part of the present year Chamberlain N. L. Gondatti, governor of the Tomsk province, appointed by the Czar to be head of an inter-departmental mission, arrived in Eastern Siberia for the purpose of studying the economical and political situation of the country and reporting upon its needs. He has been engaged up till now in carrying out the object of his mission, and appears to have made great efforts to get a thorough grasp of the position. He has, notably, travelled along the whole of the route selected for the Amur Railway, and examined the possibilities of settling the belt lying between the river and the railway with a sufficiently dense Russian population to counteract the menace offered by the extraordinary rapid growth of the Chinese settlements along the southern bank. He has also visited Nikolaievsk, and elaborated a scheme by which the harbour entrance will be improved and made easily accessible to ocean-going steamers, while he proposes to have the channel of the Amur as far as Khabarovsk deepened and properly buoyed. He has, further, been studying the immigration problem for the country generally, and the possibility of repressing the trade in smuggled spirits along the Amur, which is causing such demoralisation among the Russian peasantry. His visit is likely to be of permanent interest, for it would seem to mark a turning point in the attitude of the Central Government towards this district and to herald the adoption of a more liberal policy in the treatment of it. Till the time of the Russo-Japanese war the development of the Amur region was not considered a matter of any urgency, and was left mainly to chance. Since the war the eyes of the authorities in St. Petersburgh have indeed been opened to the necessity of immediately developing the country, but the inelastic system of administration has continued the same, and what efforts have been made to improve the economical situation have remained largely sterile. The careless attitude which prevailed before the war has given way to an unreasoning fear of Japanese and Chinese encroachments, but no scheme has been devised to withstand such encroachments, and the country is just as much at their mercy as ever.
The only remedies are a large influx of population and of capital. Unfortunately, the wave of immigration from European Russia appears to be subsiding; Russian capital cannot be attracted into such channels, and foreign capital is at present discouraged by the restrictive regulations with which its employ is hemmed in."
There seems now to be a real prospect of improvement, and the most favourable sign is the imminent departure of General Unterberger, Governor-General of the Amur, who has been some forty years in this district and personifies the bureaucratic methods which have stifled progress in the past. M. Gondatti is confidently named as destined to succeed him as civil Governor-General, while it is believed that an independent post will be created for the general commanding the military district of the Amur. On this point I have no information from official sources. In any case, I think that it may be taken as certain that the line of action to be followed henceforth by
[1850 q-6]