87
F
Tangshaoyi recently informed me that on a pair of shoes made
at his native village Tongkatsun (see my despatch Secret of
1st July) taxes had to be paid 33 times on the way to Canton.
Fact is that in the delta extortion by brigands is super-
imposed on the Likin machinery and squeezes trade in a
manner which Canton Administration is powerless to prevent.
If tariff autonomy is successfully usurped by
Nanking Government other Chinese region authorities would
undoubtedly follow suit but they would probably repudiate any assurances given us by Nanking nor (?omitted could any confi-
dence whatever be placed in any assurances given us by
Nanking Government which would not hesitate to repudiate them
if found inconvenient later on and which itself may not long
exist.
It must constantly be remembered that any additional
revenues granted to China would only be used for civil war
and further impoverishment of the country whereby foreign trade is being steadily ruined.
In conclusion I strongly urge that it now
imperative to make all Chinese region
authorities understand
that no further encroachment on British treaty rights will be tolerated. Hong Kong is not opposed to grant of tariff
autonomy to China by negotiation in due form and under reason-
able safeguards for its proper administration but we consider that under the chaotic conditions now obtaining tariff autonomy is not a practicable proposition and that to allow it to be usurped by individual regional authorities would be most
detrimental both to our trade and to the Chinese themselves.