PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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that Sir R. Hart must surely mean by "contraband goods" such goods as are ejusdem ̈ generis with munitions of war, and not, as the Administrator supposes, an article like salt.
On the whole, therefore, I advise that Her Majesty's Government should require the Chinese Government to remove all its Customs stations which are established on British territory, and if no other plan more acceptable to both Governments can be devised, there should be sanctioned the continuance of the present arrangement, under which an agency of the Imperial Maritime Customs attends in the Colony to the collection of the duty on opium. But it is easy enough to foresee that, if nothing more than this is done, even although nothing more can be claimed by China, dissatisfaction and irritation will be created, which it would be only prudent to avoid, if it be possible. I venture, therefore, to make a suggestion of my own, which I submitted many years ago, long before the Russell Agreement, and which would have been, I had reason to believe, a solution of the difficulties which have always surrounded the question of the levying of duties on the Hong Kong trade by China.
Personally, I have always thought the Russell Agreement a mistake. It seemed to me the thin edge of the wedge which the Chinese Government, whether as in the case now under discussion, or for purely native purposes, would lose no opportunity of trying to drive home. It also seemed to me that if any duties were to be collected on behalf of Chim in Hong Kong, it would be far better that they should be collected by responsible British officials than by any Foreign agency.
Opium has for long past been treated as an exceptional article of commerce.
The
duty levied upon its importation, and on its movement to any part of the Chinese Empire, is exceptional. It is far and away the most valuable merchandise that is taxed. It is an article more easily smuggled than any other. It is recognised by Her Majesty's Govern- ment that in the interest of the Colony every endeavour should be made to prevent it from being made a basis for smuggling, not only on account of the great importance of putting down whatever is detrimental to the maintenance of law and order, but as a friendly obligation towards China. To this end the Russell Agreement was adopted, and as that step was deliberately taken, I fail to see any sound reason why the Government should hesitate about taking the further step of collecting the duty on opium by its own officers on behalf of China, should corresponding advantages be obtainable. Surely there is less sacrifice of prestige, or whatever else it may be called, by such a course, than by sanctioning an imperium in imperio, such as is unquestionably the case under the Russell Agreement.
It is penal to import opium into Hong Kong in smaller quantities than by the chest, a bulky form, which cannot well be smuggled. The duty should be leviable at once, and could be simply effected through the harbour departments, with some slight additional clerical assistance. When once the duty (or duty and likin) had been paid, the Chinese Government would be no more interested in its movement. China should, of course, pay the costs of collection, which would be nothing very great.
The number of chests imported into Hong Kong in 1897 was 37,708, and 31,160 cheats were exported from Hong Kong in the same year. Further, 4,591 piculs (not chests) of Persian opium were landed in Hong Kong in 1897. I may add that 13,739 chests were through cargo to China, and not landed in Hong Kong.
The amount of duty and likin collected in Hong Kong by the Imperial Maritime Customs on that opium was as follows:-Duty, Haekwan taels, 14,135; Likin, Haekwan teels, 37,694. The total collection, therefore, was: Haekwan taels, 51,829, = about £7,774.
I have no means of ascertaining at what cost this collection is made, but it must be considerable. There is a European Commissioner of Customs, a highly paid official, and his subordinates, and there is the preventive service of steamers and launches.
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If the Hong Kong Government collected the duty and likin on opium, this costly service would be no longer required. There would, also, be entire certainty in the collection. In return, the Hong Kong Government should receive some advantages from China, and it might take the form of the removal of the Chinese customs stations (native division) from the immediate vicinity of the Colony. In short, that "the blockade should be raised, and the duties leviable on the junk trade should be collected at the ports of entry on the coast of China. The native trade with the Colony would receive a great impetus by being no longer subjected to the "squeezing" which takes place through the native Customs, and this is now of still greater importance in view of the probable early development of the Colony through the acquisition of the new territory.
CECIL C. SMITH.
19th September, 1898.
21576.
SIR,
(No. 242.)
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No. 29.
ACTING-GOVERNOR BLACK to MR. CHAMBERLAIN.
(Received September 26, 1898.)
Government House, Hong Kong, August 27, 1898. Mr. STEWART LOCKHART and the officials detached from this Government to aid him, having well nigh finished their survey of the newly leased territory, and Mr. Lockhart himself being about to embark for England in the Canadian Pacific Railway Company's steamer on the 31st instant, I think it well to offer some preliminary observations on the administration of the new territory.
2. As I suggested in a previous letter, the laws of Hong Kong should only very gradually be brought to bear on this new territory; to use a homely word, "red tape should be jealously excluded. While subordinate in every detail to the Governor of Hong Kong, the territory should be quite independent of all local officials except, as stated hereafter, the Director of Public Works, who, from the first, should take an active part in improving and extending communications.
3. As our laws and customs would at first be irksome to the conservative Chinese, I am strongly in favour of beginning with a personal, fatherly government, adininistered by a Commissioner or a Resident possessing knowledge of the Chinese, intelligence, and common sense, only responsible to the Governor of Hong Kong.
4. He should govern somewhat in the present Chinese system, i.e., the village elders to rule the villages, which, grouped according to topographical limits, form a Tung having
a council composed of representatives from the village elders. Each Tung will send ä representative to the council of the Resident.
5. All minor offences to be dealt with by the elders of villages with the right of appeal to the Tung, and further to the Resident.
6. Cases of murder, rape, piracy, arson, etc., to be tried at Hong Kong.
7. After the experience of a year it may be advisable to have a peripatetic magistrate well acquainted with native customs.
8. At first the revenue will be collected as now, and people required to pay as much towards the official purse as they now pay to China. The revenue books, supplemented by other information, give a fair idea of what the folk can easily pay.
9. Staff of the Resident.-A Secretary (a Chinese), Native clerks, a Land Officer and Treasurer (a white man), with some temporary surveyors to measure the holdings and issue proper leases, etc., a medical man, who would also supervise the sanitary matters of the territory.
10. A police force of Chinese under a European officer to supplement the present village police. This force would be held together at one or two central points, would be armed with carbines, would number 50 at first, and subsequently be raised to 100.
11. Besides the land police there should be two launches with European coxswaine and each armed with a Maxim, one for the western shore and Lantao, and the other for the Mirs Bay side, crews Chinese.
12. Roads and communications.-The important work of improving and opening roads should be under the Director of Public Works, the only Hong Kong official, except the Governor, charged with duty in the new territory.
13. Education.-Each village has at present its school, and the Resident should be left to feel his way and as soon as advisable to begin instruction in English and in Western methods.
14. The head quarters of the Resident to be established near a central village, the islands being visited by him at frequent intervals. Until houses are built the Resident and his staff will put up at the best houses that can be got. Mat sheds are by no means uncomfortable, and can be easily and cheaply run up.
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15. Within three or four years it is anticipated that the rovenue will have made up
the necessary initial expenses and the territory bo self-supporting.
16. I have always personally taken a great interest in the mainland, and believe that. our known fair dealing will encourage the country folk to develop its resources, and that
the hill sides will soon feed cattle enough for the supply of Hong Kong.
17. The gist of my recommendations is that, having chosen a Resident, he should be
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