to disagreement among themselves could not present a united protest against them to the Canton Government, then in the interests of his service he would collect them. Sir Francis saw clearly that, unless the Mari- time Customs could be turned into an agency for the collection of substantial revenues for the Cantonese and other provincial governments, its doom was sealed. But later in the same day Sir Francis went back on this statement and wrote to Mr. O'Malley as follows:- "The Customs as a department of the Chinese Government collect duties in virtue of authority of treaties concluded between China and the Powers and detain steamers and goods until such duties are paid. They cannot collect from Foreign ships duties not sanctioned by Treaty Powers, because they would be without any legal authority to enforce payment. Legality of duties represents the whole basis on which the Customs rest in their relation
to China's foreign trade. In these circumstances the Customs could not effectively collect a tax on goods of British provenance alone, because duties being col- lected from ships they could not enforce payment of tax on such goods imported in foreign ships of other nationality. For the same reason they could not effective· ly collect tax on all goods relying on the assent of only one or a limited number of Treaty Powers. Customs function legally and cannot be made to function illegally from motives of expediency. It therefore follows that before the Customs can undertake collection
there must be unanimity on the part of the Treaty Powers" (Peking telegram to Foreign Office No. 490 of
3rd December).
The
41. On the 6th December the Foreign Office tole- graphed that His Majesty's Government was "prepared to
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