Smith telle me that he has hard on good
authority that repairs are being carried out on a bridge
Have you heard anything of
a little beyond the frontier.
this 7
As regards your last paragraph, of course
the Kowloon Customs are in effect under 'force majeure':
not only on the ground mentioned by you but also because
obviously the Japanese at Canton would not regard goods
na 'duty-paid', because duty had been paid on them at
Kowloon unless the proceeds were coming to them and the
duties charged were in accordance with a tariff approved
by them; they would, therefore, require a second payment
of duty on such goods. No merchant, therefore, would pay
at Kowloon, realizing that he would be paying double duty
by so doing.
Yours very sincerely,
(Sgd) G.A.S. NORTHCOTE
50