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79
customs collections at the larger centres, such as Hankow or Shanghai
*
Instead therefore, of a certain revenue on which he can lay his hands, the Military Governor is faced with the possibility of having to depend on remittances from elsewhere, which may easily become a bone of contention in another civil war, and which at best would probably be subject to distasteful conditions laid down by a central
government".
4.
Mr. F.E.Wilkinson, His Majesty's Consul General at Hukden, wrote to His Majesty's Minister in a despatch dated the 13th January, 1926, that Mr. Wang Yung-chiang, the Civil Governor at Mukden, who has the reputation of being a great authority on finance, spoke to him in the course of an interview as follows:- " If by likin was meant all provincial taxes on trade, the chinese Govern- mont in agreeing to abolish them was undertaking an obligation which in his opinion it could not possibly fulfil. The authority of the present Paking Goverment extended no further than the capital, and it had not the power in the time specified (i.e. in three years) to abolish likin in the Province of Chihli alone, not to mention the other nineteen provinces of china. Until China had become reunited under a central government which commanded the respect and obedience of the provinces and could enforce its mandates, it was idle
even to discuss the question. The Paking Government might promise the provinces that, if they abolished likin, they would be duly compensated from other sources for any loss of reverve which they might suffer; but, assuming that it had sufficient funds available for the purpose, no province would accept the word of central authority with the reputation for venality of present and recent Governments in Peking, where the bulk of the public revenue went to line the pockets of the Cabinet Ministers instead of being used for administrative purposes. The fact should be borne in mind that the receipts from internal taxes on goods were one of the chief sources of income in all the provinces of China and that it was impossible for any of them to dispense with this revenue Mr. Wilkinson adds to without serious financial disturbance".
this report of the views of Mr. Wang the following comment:-