This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government!
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
6
[September 21.]
SECTION 1.
Sir,
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.--(Received September 21.)
Board of Trade, September 19, 1903.
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, transmitting copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking on the subject of the refusal by the Viceroy of Nanking to permit the China Flour Mills Company of Shanghae to export flour, and stating that Lord Lansdowne proposes, if the Board concur, to instruct His Majesty's Minister at Peking to claim the right for British and Chinese subjects of exporting flour abroad on the payment of a small specific duty.
With reference thereto, I am to say that the Board consider that the question whether flour may be exported from China is open to some doubt, the Rules affecting the matter being open to more than one interpretation. Moreover, while on the one hand we appear to have acquiesced in the past in the Chinese claim to prohibit the export of flour, on the other hand the fact that Sir R. Hart considers that flour is legally exportable is undoubtedly of great weight. It would seem clear, however, that in any case no claim can be based on the provisions of the Treaty of Tien-tsin for the exportation of flour on payment of duty. It appears to the Board that flour is either exportable free of duty under Rule 2, or prohibited under Rule 5, and that the only claim that could be put forward would be for the right to export under the former Rule. In view, however, of the uncertainty of British rights in the matter, the Board would offer no objection to Mr. Townley's suggestion that a practical compromise might be arranged (with the approval of the firm affected) by which the export of flour might be permitted on the payment of a small duty equivalent to, say, 5 per cent. ad valorem.
I am, &c.
(Signed) T. H. W. PELHAM.
[2157 x−1]
Page
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government !
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
6
[September 21.]
SECTION 1.
Sir,
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.--(Received September 21.)
Board of Trade, September 19, 1903.
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, transmitting copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking on the subject of the refusal by the Viceroy of Nanking to permit the China Flour Mills Company of Shanghae to export flour, and stating that Lord Lansdowne proposes, if the Board concur, to instruct His Majesty's Minister at Peking to claim the right for British and Chinese subjects of exporting four abroad on the payment of a small specific duty.
With reference thereto, I am to say that the Board consider that the question whether flour may be exported from China is open to some doubt, the Rules affecting the matter being open to more than one interpretation. Moreover, while on the one hand we appear to have acquiesced in the past in the Chinese claim to prohibit the export of flour, on the other hand the fact that Sir R. Hart considers that flour is legally exportable is undoubtedly of great weight. It would seem clear, however, that in any case no claim can be based on the provisions of the Treaty of Tien-tsin for the exportation of flour on payment of duty. It appears to the Board that flour is either exportable free of duty under Rule 2, or prohibited under Rule 5, and that the only clain that could be put forward would be for the right to export under the former Rule. In view, however, of the uncertainty of British rights in the matter, the Board would offer no objection to Mr. Townley's suggestion that a practical com- promise might be arranged (with the approval of the firm affected) by which the export of flour might be permitted on the payment of a small duty equivalent to, say, 5 per cent. ad valorem.
I am, &c.
(Signed) T. H. W. PELHAM.
[2157 x−1]
Page
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