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had decided to introduce new regulations as from September 1st but as a concession would not impose any fine on goods reaching China during September and October without consular invoices. Such goods would simply pay
fee of 5 gold units to customs. Goods arriving during
November or December without invoices would only pay a
fine of twice the amount of invoice fee but from January 1st onwards full fine would be levied on goods without
invoices. You will see that as consignments probably
take five or six weeks to reach China, we benefit little
from concessions during September and vctober and I feel therefore that we should press for say further two months delay during which no fee is levied. It was pointed out to me that such procedure would enable Chinese Government
to see where Chinese Consuls or substitutes may be appointed according to volume of trade in particular region. With regard to question of minimum value of consignments head of department felt that this would hardly affect consignments from United Kingdom etc. which would not be likely to be so small. In any case small consignments could always be transmitted by parcel post free. I know for a fact that Japan will be very hard hit by $200 figure in view of her junk trade.
4. In reply to further enquiries on my part I was
informed that new regulations had been drawn up not for purposes of revenue but to enable Chinese Government to
be furnished with trade valuation statistics from foreign
countries, a task which customs were unable to undertake.
5. Official consulted informed me Chinese Legation
in London had been instructed several times to ascertain
from Foreign Office whether appointment of Chinese Consul in Hong Kong would be approved to facilitate smooth
working