41
agreement on the lines of the 1930 draft Customs Agreement
discussed below.
ital X
Customs Agreement.
13.
A draft Agreement was negotiated in 1929/30
whereby the Chinese Maritime Customs were to be enabled
to operate in Hong Kong in collaboration with the Colonial
Government's Imports and Exports Department and to
collect in Hong Kong the Chinese customs dues on goods
destined for China.
draft
This Agreement failed to secure
A
ratification only through the last minute factious
opposition on the part of representatives of the late
Rumour alleged this opposition to be
regime in Canton.
due to personal interests in that régime in the smuggling
draft
trade which the, Agreement was designed to check.
draft
14.12. In return the Agreement provided for the retention
of Chinese national status as regards customs by goods
shipped from one Treaty Port to another via Hong Kong. There
is in fact an administrative order of the Chinese Maritime
Customs already in operation on this subject but it is
uncertain what its precise effect has been and whether it
extends to all goods. It would be better to have the
matter regularised in a formal agreement. There were also
provisions regarding salt, Chinese coastal traffic and
navigation of Chinese inland waters which are not immediately
important.
15. *. An Agreement on the 1930 lines would not
prejudice the position of Hong Kong as a free port and might
be expected to benefit both the Colony and China (the
latter principally through the resultant discouragement of
A semi-official enquiry has recently been
smuggling).
received