COPY.
No. 81.
Colonial.
sir,
304
Offices of Chinese karitime Customs
for Kowloon and District,
York Buildings,
Hongkong, 17th, April, 1914.
Having reference to previous correspondence on the
subject of the levy of special fees for Customs overtime work on
the Kowloon-Canton Railway, I m directed by the Inspector-General
of Customs to inform your Government that the functioning of the
karitime Customs at the Kowloon Railway Station us arranged for
as an alternative to the examination an: release of all cargo and passengers' luggage at the frontier. This arrangement suits both Administrations, Railway and Customs, and is in the interest of traffic and trade generally. But it also, in the Customs view, implies the right to enforce established Customs rules and rejula- -tions, one of which is that cargo cannot be examined and re- -leased out of working hours unless special permission is applied for and a permit fee paid. The Customs do not daim fees from the Hailway Company for the maintenance of the extra preve tive staff made necessary by the running of trains at night or on Customs holidays but they claim fees for ranting facili ies to perform Customs formalities out of regular working hours when such forma- -lities are required by the carriage on trains of dutiable mer- -chandise. Passengers' lusage is not ordinarily supposed to contain dutiable articles or to require more than the preventive attention of Customs officers, out on a rail may wich caters chiefly for Chinese passengers, who habitually carry with them as lucage dutiaule commodities amounting in the ag reute to a respectable cargo, a situation may be created which demands the observance of Customs formalities on the spot if delay and inconvenience to the passengers is to be avoided. It is open to the railway to refuse the carriage of such goods except as freight on freight-paying conditions, of if they are taken as passengers' bagcage, to make such arrangements on behalf of the
1: