5 -
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47
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located in Hong Kong. At this office correspondence was
carried on, returns for the Board of Trade and Revenue were
prepared and despatches, the office accounts kept and
disbursements made, but no dues or duties of any kind were
collected. The Commissioner himself and his European
assistants resided in Hong Kong island at the Peak.
7.
This arrangement was understood to be purely
temporary, for it had been clearly laid down in the agree-
ment signed on the 11th September, 1886, that the office of the Foreign Inspectorate of Chinese Maritime Customs
should be established on Chinese Territory at a convenient
spot in Kowloon. But no further action was taken by the
Hong Kong Government until a question was raised in 1890
as to whether the Commissioner of Customs for Kowloon and
District had authority to require British owned steam-
launches and yachts of this Colony to obtain his permission
before leaving the waters of the Colony and to issue "towing
certificates" to Hong Kong launches. In this connection
Kr. F. Fleming, then Officer Administering the Government,
wrote to Sir John Walsham, His Majesty's Minister at Peking,
on the 28th July, 1890, inquiring as to the exact position
of the Kowloon Commissioner, what powers he possessed, whom
he really represented and to whom he was responsible. Lir.
Fleming also addressed Lord Knutsford on the same subject
6 in despatch No. 287 of the 30th July, 1890. A reminder was
sent to Sir J. Walsham on the 22nd October, 1890: but no
reply was ever received from the Peking Legation or from
the Colonial Office, and the matter dropped into abeyance.
172757/1870
8./