383
72
It was agreed that the Commission should meet again as soon as Sir R. Hart returned from Macao.
Paper placed on the Table by Sir R. Hart on the 14th July, 1886.
In order to record the Chinese proposal more clearly, it is placed before the Commission in the following paragraphs, supplemented by some explanatory remarks:-
1. The difficulties which special circumstances have made for collecting duty on opium at the Tariff rate of 30 taels cannot fail to be intensified when the Customs commence to collect simultaneously a duty and hi-kin amounting together to 110 taels per picul. From the Chinese point of view the difficulties referred to must be coped with by the adoption of one or other of three different plans, viz.:-
(a.) England to collect the opium revenue for China in India.
(b.) China to do her own work; or
(c.) England and China to act in co-operation.
2. The first plan, viz., that by which the opium revenue would be collected for China by England in India, is regarded by the Chinese section of the Commission as the one of the three best calculated to secure a full collection at the least cost, and as less likely than either of the others to embarrass either Government or commerce. By a system of deferred payment of duties in India, interference with capital could be avoided, and by freeing opium from taxation in China smuggling and its attendant evils, an encouraged and profitable lawlessness on the side of the people, and a very considerable waste of public money in preventive measures on the side of the Government, would be brought to an end.
3. The second plan, viz., for China to do her own work, i.e., collect her own revenue on Chinese territory, and take her own preventive steps all along the Chinese seaboard, is a plan which can be made thoroughly effectual, but it will necessitate large expenditure, and will necessarily cause much friction, and the more thorough it is the more heavily will it press on all affected by it, and the more distasteful will it become.
4. The third plan under which it is proposed that there shall be a sort of co-operation between England and China is somewhere between the other two: it will be more expensive than the first, and it need not press so heavily on any interest as the second; it is the hulk plan, and its general outline would be as follows, subject to such modification as a full discussion of details may show to be necessary:--
[Insert Sir R. Hart's paper, dated the 31st October, 1885, headed "Opium, China" with "Notes explanatory" containing his hulk scheme.]
5. Among possible modifications foreseen, and agreeable to China if called for by the discussion of details, are the following:
(a.) If necessary, the hulks may be the property of the Colony under the British flag, and manned and officered by crews, &c., appointed by the Colony; in such case China would supply the Colony with funds for first cost and maintenance, and while the Colony's own employés would see to the carrying out of Rules and Regulations, the only Chinese Representative on board would be the foreign clerks appointed by the Customs Inspectorate to keep records, issue shipment certificates, &c.
(b.) If not considered allowable for China to receive taxes collected on goods of British origin not consumed in China, e.g., Indian opium consumed in Hong Kong or sent from Hong Kong to the United States, &c., the amount so collected could be appropriated by the Colony as part of its annual income; and so long as the Colony has an Opium Farm among its revenue-yielding items, there can be nothing unreasonable in its adding to that, or substituting for that, a revenue collected in another way, whether as excise or transit duty, from opium consumed or passing through. But the position and circumstances of Hong Kong being what they are, the collection of the full sum of 110 taels per picul on the opium that there disappears from the total arrived is not only a justifiable and essential feature of the hulk plan, but it is also the one concession which it would be both reasonable and fair to urge the Colony to consent to, the reasonableness of the request being just in proportion to the need for the measure; and that need again being the outcome of a difficulty created for China by the exceptional advantages with which Nature and negotiation have strengthened Hong Kong.
6. There are some who fear that the hulk plan would have the effect of causing vessels to run opium from other ports, avoiding Hong Kong, direct to China, and that both the trade of Hong Kong and the revenue of China would be thereby losers.
Such fears, although not altogether groundless, need not be seriously entertained, seeing that alongside of the hulk plan would function a coast preventive service, certain to...
383
72
It was agreed that the Commission should meet again as soon as Sir R. Hart returned from Macao.
Paper placed on the Table by Sir R. Hart on the 14th July, 1886.
In order to record the Chinese proposal more clearly, it is placed before the Commis- sion in the following paragraphs, supplemented by some explanatory remarks:-
1. The difficulties which special circumstances have made for collecting duty on opium at the Tariff rate of 30 taels cannot fail to be intensified when the Customs commence to collect simultaneously a duty and hi-kin amounting together to 110 taels per picul. From the Chinese point of view the difficulties referred to must be coped with by the adoption of one or other of three different plans, viz. :---
(a.) England to collect the opium revenue for China in India.
(b.) China to do her own work; or
(c.) England and China to act in co-operation.
2. The first plan, viz., that by which the opium revenue would be collected for China by England in India, is regarded by the Chinese section of the Commission as the one of the three best calculated to secure a full collection at the least cost, and as less likely than either of the others to embarrass either Government or commerce. By a system of deferred payment of duties in India, interference with capital could be avoided, and by freeing opium from taxation in China smuggling and its attendant evils, an encouraged and profitable lawlessness on the side of the people, and a very considerable waste of public money in preventive measures on the side of the Government, would be brought to
an end.
3. The second plan, viz., for China to do her own work, .e., collect her own revenue on Chinese territory, and take her own preventive steps all along the Chinese seaboard, is a plan which can be made thoroughly effectual, but it will necessitate large expenditure, and will necessarily cause much friction, and the more thorough it is the more heavily will it press on all affected by it, and the more distasteful will it become.
4. The third plan under which it is proposed that there shall be a sort of co-operation between England and China is somewhere between the other two: it will be more expensive than the first, and it need not press so heavily on any interest as the second; it is the bulk plan, and its general outline would he as follows, subject to such modification as a full discussion of details may show to be necessary :--
[Insert Sir R. Hart's paper, dated the 31st October, 1885, headed "Opium, China " with "Notes explanatory" containing his hulk scheme.]
5. Among possible modifications foreseen, and agreeable to China if called for by the discussion of details, are the following: *
(a.) If necessary, the hulks may be the property of the Colony under the British flag, and manned and officered by crews, &c., appointed by the Colony; in such case China would supply the Colony with funds for first cost and maintenance, and while the Colony's own employés would see to the carrying out of Rules and Regulations, the only Chinese Representative on board would be the foreign clerks appointed by the Customs Inspectorate to keep records, issue shipment certificates, &c.
(b.) If not considered allowable for China to receive taxes collected on goods of British origin not consumed in China, e.g., Indian opium consumed in Hong Kong or sent from Hong Kong to the United States, &c., the amount so collected could be appropriated by the Colony as part of its annual income; and so long as the Colony has an Opium Farm among its revenue-yielding items, there can be nothing unreasonable in its adding to that, or substituting for that, a revenue collected in another way, whether as excise or transit duty, from opium consumed or passing through. But the position and circumstances of Hong Kong being what they are, the collection of the full sum of 110 taels per picul on the opium that there disappears from the total arrived is not only a justifiable and essential feature of the hulk plan, but it is also the one concession which it would be both reasonable and fair to urge the Colony to consent to, the reasonableness of the request being just in proportion to the need for the measure; and that need again being the outcome of a difficulty created for China by the exceptional advantages with which Nature and negotiation have strengthened Hong Kong.
6. There are some who fear that the hulk plan would have the effect of causing vessels to run opium from other ports, avoiding Hong Kong, direct to China, and that both the trade of Hong Kong and the revenue of China would be thereby losers.
Such fears, although not altogether groundless, need not be seriously entertained, -seeing that alongside of the hulk plan would function a coast preventive service, certain to
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.