CO129-271 - Governor Sir Robinson - 1896 [1-4] — Page 552

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affecting shipping enforceable only upon British shipowners, who will therefore be placed at a serious disadvantage with the numerous competing vessels of other nations. The Local Committee consider it their duty to place their views before you for the purpose of securing your support in representing to the Colonial Government the unfairness and prejudicial character of legislation which is not necessary; which has not been suggested by complaints of passengers; and against which it is believed that every British Consul, conversant with the coast passenger trade as now carried on, has expressed a decided opinion, The views of the Local Committee are in conformity with those of the Agents of the China Navigation Company which are shared in their entirety, and the Local Committee are authorized to so inform you, by Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., Agents of the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company; and are to the effect that if these regulations be enacted it is quite certain they will be honestly and strictly enforced by British officials and conformed to by British shipowners; while prolonged experience has shown that, as in the past, so in the future, such regulations will not be enforced or observed by the officials and shipowners of other nationalities. The inevitable result of this will be to exclude British shipping from the passenger trade between Chinese ports. Competition with other flags is now very severe; and while no doubt exists that competing on equal terms British shipping is quite able to maintain the position it at present occupies, yet, if burdened with the expenses and delay, and the inspection procedure, which Chinese passengers intensely dislike, involved in complying with the regulations, it is obvious British ships cannot contend successfully with vessels against which these regulations, however much they may theoretically apply, are not enforceable. Passage rates are very low, but the earning from this traffic in Chinese waters is a valuable portion of the income of steamers; and its loss will eventually result in the loss of the whole trade.

Assuming the acceptance by all other Governments, inclusive of those of China and Japan, it is far from difficult to demonstrate why such regulations would become inoperative against all, but British vessels. Chinese steamers now perform about one-fourth of the whole carrying trade between the treaty ports of China; and it is merely necessary for the Local Committee to assert, without qualification, that no penalties could be enforced against Chinese vessels infringing the regulations, notwithstanding the assent of the Chinese Government to the regulations themselves. Japanese vessels are more amenable to rules enacted or sanctioned by their Government; and the Local Committee will not go so far as to say that vessels of this nationality could entirely evade the regulations; but when it is known that the share of Japan in the coast trade is less than three-fifths of one per cent, of the whole, the temptation to increase that share by a lax administration of regulations tending to prevent its expansion would be too great to be resisted. Again the fact must be recognized that Chinese and Japanese vessels belong to companies openly supported by Government funds, endowed with extraordinary privileges, and

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more or less under official control and patronage; the consequence being that regulations disadvantageous to the whole shipping interest would not be enforced, except nominally, by one of the parties chiefly concerned in its success. A large number of Norwegian steamers are now trading on the coast of China, and let it be assumed that the Norwegian Government have sanctioned the regulations: what prospect of enforcement is there when the fact is realised that in the whole of China there is but one official Norwegian Consul? There are, it is "Merchant Consuls"; but without any intention of reflecting upon their integrity it is more than human to suppose these "mercantile officials" would observe, with any approach to strictness, regulations opposed to their own interests as shipowners, or agents of shipowners, when their lax enforcement would throw into their hands a valuable opportunity to increase their lines of vessels to the detriment of existing lines of British steamers.

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Further illustrations of the certainties of failure in the enforcement of regulations against the shipping of other nations than Great Britain are not necessary; those cited are sufficient to prove that until there exists at all Chinese ports judicial authority strong and honest enough to enforce the regulations upon all nationalities alike, such regulations, if enacted, must operate most unfairly and practically against British shipping and confer upon its rivals valuable advantages. If this position is established the Local Committee are assured that their communication to you is justified.

The extent of the carrying trade between the treaty ports of China having been alluded to, it is proper to explain that in the year 1894 the total of inward and outward clearances was 21,986,000 tons, of which 15,045,215 tons, or 68.4 per cent., were British, 5.262,741 tons, or 24.0 per cent., Chinese; leaving for the vessels of all other nationalities 1,678,044 tons, or 7.6 per cent. These figures are cited as evidence of the results of British enterprise and of its power to compete with every form of governmental support accorded by subsidies, monopolies, and privileges to vessels of other flags; it seeks no legislative enactments in its own favour; all the British shipowner asks for, and all that the Local Committee advocate is, that there shall be no legislation opposed to the welfare of British maritime industry.

The Colonial Government of Hongkong may be under the im- pression that there is a necessity for the proposed enactment: and the Local Committee feel called upon to emphatically deny the existence of such necessity. The passenger trade has been carried on in China in British ships for a number of years; that it has been so to the satisfaction of passengers is declared by the number of those who avail of the accommodation; while so far as safety is concerned the traffic will !compare most favourably with traffic carried on under the Hongkong ordinances.

The objection may be taken that this communication is, in the present stage, unnecessary and premature; that it would have been better deferred until the ordinance had been published when the objectionable clauses might have been dealt with more particularly;