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freight steamers which remain many weeks absent from
China ports. There may well be a loss of much
of this income to China and it is curious that
while imposing these high charges Canton proposes a
deep-sea port at Whampoa and invites the direct
trade of the world! It is not improbable that
due to such causes transport of cargo will pass
even back to junk carriage. By such channels undoubtedly a large illicit trade is destined to grow up. When we leave the days of a Five per cent
Tariff: (N.E. in the case of junks under
Native Customs the tariff is very much smaller
than 5% Is this to be increased pro-rata also?)
when we approach higher tariffs and speak of 30 % and probably more to follow, the bootlegger and the rum runner is bound to appear in many branches
of trade. For as taxation rises everywhere there is no corresponding attempt in the direction of Preventive measures. As matters tend to-day an
early future of trade with China whether in imports
or exports may well be one carried on to a large extent by smuggling, just as the trade in Opium is being carried on throughout China to-day. In
this, it is plain that Japan and other foreign
countries and dependencies near to China are bound
to play a part. The motor junks of the
Japanese already make considerable inroads into
the legal duty collections of treaty ports by landing cargoes along the wild coasts of China.
It