CO129-205 - Public Offices - 1882 — Page 302

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This reminds me to tell you that while in Hong Kong I heard, in confidence from the Captain of the gun-boat who was taking the officer over, that the Governor of Macao was to be invested with a decoration got for him by Chang-chih-t'ai in return for permis- sion to allow the Chinese to search Macao for the pirates of the German ship " Occident." Lin Tô-jêu referred in so pointed a way to his ability to square the Governor of Macao that I fancy the latter must have named his terms.

He next spoke about the rate to be charged of opium, and said he agreed with Li Chung- t'ang that it should be 100 taels. This more than expressed the actual revenue that the Chinese Government now got, but when every allowance was made for loss by smuggling and cost of collection, it would not do much more than cover the total revenue, reported and unreported. The latter was a very heavy item in every port. Fire brigades, and the like institutions, with a host of petty items that never appeared in the public, were covered by fees on opium, only known to foreigners under the general term li-kin, He thought 100 taels was a fair rate, from which I gather that, if pressed, he would accept less. The issue of a ticket with each bail would, he thought, be a fair guarantee against a double levy, which would further be prohibited by an Imperial Decree which no one would venture to disregard.

He told me the Yamên had also referred the scheme for the taxation of foreign imports to him. He had reported favourably upon it for two reasons. First, he saw many difficulties in the way of carrying out the arrangement in the Cheloo Agreement for the delimitation of a fresh area, particularly in parts where no foreign concession existed; and, next, be believed that an import duty of 10 per cent., although it did not represent the aggregate of the inland taxes leviable upon foreign imports, would actually secure a larger revenue to the Chinese Government, for a large proportion of the inland dues never found their way into the Exchequer. He had objected to the proposal that appro- priation should be made by maritime provinces to inland ones, and had suggested as an alternative that the whole of the revenue from the foreign import trade should be remitted to the Board of Revenue. In return for this remittance the maritime provinces were to be relieved from all subsidies to impecunious provinces and contributions towards war and other expenses, which would have to be supplied by the Board of Revenue. This would relieve the richer provinces from many embarrassing calls. I asked what the provinces would depend upon in this case for local expenditure. He said there was the land tax to fall back upon, omitting all mention of li-kin on native trade. He said the demand for guarantees was a reasonable one on the part of the foreign Representatives; but when I asked him what form these guarantees would take, he seemed to have no other suggestion to make than the issue of a peremptory Decree.

This is, I think, the sum of what was said on the trade question. In connection with his remarks on the necessity of opium dues being collected by the Foreign Customs, when he spoke very highly of Mr. Hart's talents as an administrator, he said Mr. Hart was coming to see him shortly to discuss the possibility of making some arrangements for the better collection of the revenue on salt.

The only other subject on which we talked was the Woosung Bar. I told Lin-ta-jêu that the Yamên had promised that something should be done, and he asked me to tell you that he had sent a "wei yuan," called Wang, to Shanghae to look into the matter and take soundings. On receipt of Wang's Report he had determined to order a dredger from abroad, which would be used for the deepening of the bar, and be afterwards employed in the Yangtze and elsewhere. He estimated the cost of dredging the bar at some 10,000 taels or so, and said it was his intention to deepen it sufficiently to allow of the passage of large vessels. It was possible that the foreign community of Shanghae might be dissatisfied with what he intended to do, but he could not promise more. Hle recognized the obliga- tion of the Chinese Government to keep its own waterways navigable, and his main objection to the scheme under which the Shanghac community proposed to levy a tax for the dredging of the bar was his fear lest they should consider that this gave them a claim to interfere with Chinese rights.

After returning to the boat I went to call on Lu, the deputy who had provided me with a chair, and thank him for his good offices. He told me that it had been the Governor-General's original intention to retire when he received the Decree summoning him to Peking, but that he had since changed his mind. It was generally supposed that Lin-chih-t'ai would be sent to Kansu, and that Tseng Kuo-chuan, the Governor-General designate, would take his place at Nanking,

I inclose a letter which Lin-chih-t'ai asked me to send to you. He trusted to me, he said, to report what he had told me to you.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

WALTER C. HILLIER.

)

(Confidential.)

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Inclosure 8 in No. 75.

Mr. Hillier to Sir T. Wade.

My dear Sir Thomas,

Hankow, September 26, 1881. ON my arrival here the day before yesterday I found that I had missed the Governor- General* by a day or two. He has gone to T-ch'ang to inspect troops, and from there will visit other military stations in his jurisdiction, returning here in about a month's

time.

Under the circumstances I thought it best to send the Governor, P'êng Tzu-hsien, your letter of introduction to the Viceroy, and ask whether, in the absence of his chief, he could give me an interview. He sent word by his military Aide that he would see me this morning, and, as in every other instance, I was received with the greatest civility.

When I spoke of the Intercourse question to him, he told me that he had no doubt it was all right, but that he had to confess he had never seen the Yamên's correspondence on the subject. He had heard that "chao-hui" was the form to be used, but had imagined that it always had been employed. He was, at any rate, quite sure that no one at Wu- ch'ang would make any objection to any new arrangements the Yamên might make, or have made. His duties did not bring him much in contact with foreign officials, though he had inet Mr. Alabaster, who had impressed him as a man of much tact and experience. Hence the reason that the correspondence from the Yamên on the subject of Intercourse had not been shown him. He had seen some recent letters from the Yamên, but these were about opium and trade. In the one they had asked the opinion of the Provincial Government as to the advisability of accepting 110 taels in lieu of all li-kin, and in the other they had called for remarks on the proposed scheme for the abolition of all inland duties on foreign imports in consideration of a Tariff duty of 10 per cent. ad valorem.

He said that the latter matter was, in his opinion, more easy of settlement than the former. The Yamên had called upon all the Customs Taotais to draw up draft regulations which should secure foreign goods from further taxation after payment of import duty, and he had seen the regulations drawn up by the Taotai of T'ch'ang, which had already gone up to Peking. These provided for the transport of foreign goods inland under passes, which would have to be shown at every barrier and stamped. I pointed out that the system would, I thought, he cumbrous, cause delays, and subject the goods to a squeeze at every barrier in the shape of a stamping fee. He did not deny the possibility of extor- tion, but said he hoped by the selection of respectable officers for barrier duty that it would be reduced to a minimum. He could not see that the imposition of indirect levies, such as the taxation of shops for the sale of foreign goods and the like, would be in any way a breach of the stipulation that one payment should cover everything, and he claimed for Chinese merchants the right to "contribute voluntarily to the necessities of the Government, provided that foreign goods were let alone. Chinese merchants, whatever they dealt in, were free to be taxed as the exigencies of the State required.

>

He had heard, he said, of the proposition of certain Chinese merchants, headed by one P'êng Yu, to establish an opium monopoly at Hong Kong. (I must correct my statement in my last letter that a "friend" had applied to Liu Chih T'ai, it was evidently this man P'êng Yü) Li Chung Tang had written to his brother about it. He, Pêng-fu- T'ai was too far away from Hong Kong to be able to express a positive opinion on the subject, and would be glad to hear what the Governors-General, whom I had seen, thought of the scheme. When I told him that they looked upon it with suspicion he agreed, and said he preferred the plan suggested by the Yamên. Tso Chung Tang's proposals were impossible; he wanted to deal with foreign opium in a manner unauthorized by Treaty, and Ting Pao Chên, Governor-General of Sze-ch'uen, had shown conclusively that native opium could not be systematically taxed. He had seen Ting Chih T'ai's memorial on the subject, in which it was pointed out that native opium was carried in small quantities by numbers of lawless and desperate characters, who concealed it about their persons, and travelled by unfrequented mountain paths. If barriers were erected at any point these men would make long detours to avoid them, and if every channel was to be stopped the barriers would have to be multiplied enormously. Even granting that it was possible to protect every outlet, it would be necessary to station a considerable number of men at each place, for the opium smugglers would travel in gangs, and resent any from Customs runners whose numerical strength was inferior to their own.

interference It was easy

to see, therefore, that the cost of an opium preventive service in Sze-chucn would be greater than the revenue it was supposed to protect.

* Li Han-ch'ang, eldest brother of the Grand Secretary Li, Governor-General of Hu Pei and Hu Nan. resides in Wu-chang, opposite Hunkow.-T. W.

He

2 Q

[1703]