331
6
9. Accordingly, under the Rules of Trade signed with the Chinese Government by Lord Elgin and his French and American colleagues in November 1858, similar cust offices were opened at Canton in 1859; Swatow in 1860; Ningpo, Foochow, Chinkiang, Tien-tain and Kiukiang in 1861; Amoy and Hankow in 1862; Chefoo in 1863; and Newchwang in 1864.
10. Under the Treaties of Peking of 1860 with France and Great Britain, China agreed to pay indemnities to those two countries. These were secured upon the custom receipts. To ensure due payment, Mr. Lay, who had succeeded Mr. Wade as one of the three "foreign inspectors of customs" just a year after the institution of the new system, was appointed first Inspector-General of Customs on the 21st January, 1861, but he soon quarrelled with the Chinese Government and was dismissed from Chinese service. His successor as Inspector-General of Customs was Mr. (later Sir Robert) Hart. In 1865 Mr. Hart established his office at Peking, which has since remained the headquarters of the maritime customs service.
11. In 1898 His Majesty's Government received an assurance from China that
"the Inspector-General of Maritime Customs shall in the future, as in the past, be of British nationality.
But if at some future time the trade
of some other country should become greater than that of Great Britain, China will then of course not be bound to necessarily employ an Englishman as inspector-general."
12. The service, though international as to staff, has always been, and still remains, pre-eminently a British institution. English is the official language, and the administration is moulded on British lines.
13. Sir R. Hart died in 1911, and was succeeded by Sir F. Aglen, the present Inspector-General.
Boxer Indemnity.
14. After the Boxer rising of 1900 the Chinese were called to
upon
pay a heavy indemnity to the Powers for damage sustained or military expenditure incurred! The claims filed amounted to about 67,500,000Z., say 450,000,000 taels; and at that sum the indemnity was eventually fixed by article 6 of the Final Protocol of 1901. Interest was to be at 4 per cent.; amortisation was to begin on the 1st January, 1902, and to end on the 31st December, 1940; annual payments (in gold at a fixed rate of exchange) were to amount to 18,829,500 taels in 1902, 19,899,300 taels from 1911, 23,383,300 taels in 1915, 24,483,800 taels from 1916, and 35,350,152 taels from 1932 until the end, the whole amount for principal and interest being 982,238,150 taels. proportionate amount was to be paid monthly to a commission of bankers representing the interested Powers, and to secure these payments certain revenues were assigned: (1) the balance of the maritime customs revenues after payment of all prior obligations secured upon them, plus the proceeds of an enhanced customs tariff of an effective 5 per cent.; (2) the native customs at each treaty port to be administered henceforth by the maritime customs; (3) the balance of the salt revenue not already pledged.
15. The total indemuity was made up as follows:-
Tuels.
Per Cent." of Total.
Russia
130,371,120
29-0
Germany
90.070,515
20.0
France
70,878,240
15.75
Great Britain
50,620,545
11-25
Japan
34,793,100
7-7
United States
32,939,055
7.3
Italy
26,517,005
5.9
Belgium
8,184,345
1.9
Austria
4,008.920
0.9
Netherlands
782,100
0.2
135,315
92,250
0-1
62,820
149 670
Total
450,000,000
100-0
*To nearest decimal,
Spain
Portugal
Sweden Other claim..
A
7
The Pre-Boxer Loans.
16. Prior to the imposition of the Boxer indemnity, certain earlier foreign obliga- tions had been already secured upon the maritime customs revenue.
Date.
Title, Source, &c.
These were :-
Interest.
Amount.
I Terin of | Redemption.
Redeemed.
Per cent.
1894 Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. (War
Loan) 1895
7
10,000,000 taels
1914
1913
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. (War
Load)
6
3,000,000/.
1915
1914
1895
Chartered Bank. (Cassel Loan)
f
1,000,000.
1915
1915
1895
Arnhold, Kurberg`and Co. (Nanking
LORD)
6
1,000,000!.
1915
19/15
1895
Franco-Russian
+
1896 Anglo-German
Sino- Japanese
400,000,000 fr.
1931
=15,820,000.
War Indemnity
5
16,000,0007.
1932
16,000,0002
1948
1898 Anglo-German
·
17. Of these loans only three are now outstanding, namely, the Franco-Russian Loan of 1895, the Anglo-German Loan of 1896 and the Anglo-German Loan of 1898. These three loans are conveniently referred to as the "pre-Boxer loaus."
Ko. 439,
Loan Service and Indemnity Payments as affected by the Revolution of 1911. 18. Among the subsidiary questions raised by the revolutionary movement that Feng, broke out in China in 1911 was that of the disposal of the customs revenue at the No. 23/1911. various treaty ports, and of how to maintain it intact for the service of the foreign debt ("Chins,"
Part LXIX, for which it was pledged.
19. Under the system till then existing these revenues had been paid into Chinese Government banks and disposed of by the Chinese superintendents of customs at the ports, the Maritime Customs Service having no responsibility beyond that of verifying and filing the bank receipts in proof of the payment of duties, and not handling the actual cash at any stage. But with the advance of the revolution the funds collected at one treaty port after another fell under revolutionary control, and there was a serious risk of their being diverted to military purposes or to other forms of support of the revolutionary movement. The first port at which this question arose was Changsha; later the same problem presented itself at Hankow; and as a temporary measure it was arranged with the revolutionaries that the revenue should be held to the order of the Inspector-General of stoms, on the ground that it was really the property of the foreign bondholders and that complications with foreign Powers might well arise if it were seized.
20. At Shanghai this raised a fresh issue. The Commissioner of Customs proposed that the revenue should be lodged with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank to the credit of the Inspector-General. This at once brought various of the foreign repre- sentatives at Peking into the field with the suggestion that the already existing machinery of the Indemnity Commission of Bankers (see paragraph 14) should be utilised. But this again was open to certain objections. The customs revenues being initely pledged in the first place for the service of the pre-Boxer loaus in regular order priority, Mr. (now Sir Francis) Aglen, the Inspector General of Customs, suggested that a special commission of the bankers interested in these pre-Boxer loans should be formed to deal with these funds. The merit of this proposal lay in that the customs revenues would thus be entrusted to those banks actually responsible to the bond- holders for the due service of the loans secured by a first charge upon them. These loans amounted to a nominal capital of 54,455,000l.; and whilst almost all the Powers had become creditors of China since 1900, only Great Britain, Germany, Russia and to a small extent France, were interested in the loans prior to that date. The Boxer indemnity was only a second charge on the customs revenue (see paragraph 14).
21. The foreign representatives at Peking had difficulty in coming to any agreement as to the arrangements to be made, the United States, Japanese and Belgian Ministers in particular (although none of them had any interest in the pre-Boxer loans) being insistent upon a revival of the powers of the Indeninity Commission of Bankers.
No. 400.)