[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
435
t
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[21592]
(No. 218.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 1.)
C O 26027
[July 1]
REC
SROTION C 22 JUL 07
Peking, May 8, 1907. IN my despatch No. 197 of the 29th ultimo I have already had the honour to report to you on the question of the special trade privileges granted by the Chinese Customs authorities to steamers owned by Chinese subjects, and on the receipt of your despatch No. 116 of the 21st March I called for further observations on the subject from Mr. Hosie.
Mr. Hosie's Memorandum, copy of which I have the honour to inclose, shows that his views were always in favour of the contention put forward by the China Navigation Company, and explains the discovery of the Treaty stipulation to which I had the honour to draw your attention in my above-mentioned despatch.
When your despatch No. 366 of the 23rd October, inclosing a statement of the Board of Trade's views, reached me I was myself struck with the far-reaching effect which their strict enforcement in practice would produce on the foreign shipping trade on the coast of China, but with the exception of the provisions of the Commercial Treaty of 1902, quoted in your present despatch, and the Supplementary Rules for Inland Steam Navigation of 1898 (clause 2), I could not recall any Treaty stipulation which specifically placed cargoes carried on foreign and Chinese vessels from one Chinese port to another on the same footing as regards payment of duties.
The discovery by Mr. Hosie of the Article in the American Treaty of 1880 places the matter beyond all possibility of dispute, and the only question is how far it would be politic to make use of this Article in dealing with any differential treatment of British and Chinese shipping.
On this point I venture to think that the China Navigation Company would be well advised to adhere to their decision not to attack the privileges long enjoyed by the China Merchants' Company, which are, so far as I know, confined to the carriage of tribute rice and brick-tea; but they would be perfectly justified in resisting any extension of these privileges, and in so doing they have been furnished with a strong lever in the discovery made by the Commercial Attaché.
Mr. Robertson, one of the leading members of the China Navigation Company's staff in the East, whom I have had an opportunity of consulting, expressed his general agreement with this view, and I have informed His Majesty's Consul-General at Tien-tsin that he should adopt it as his basis of action pending the receipt of any instructions with which you may be pleased to furnish me.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Memoranda by Mr. Hosie respecting exemption from Coast Trade Duty of Brick-tea carried in the Steamers of the China Merchants' Steum Navigation Company.
(1.)
WHEN this question was raised by Messrs. Butterfield and Swire, agents of the China Navigation Company, in February 1906, I gave it as my opinion that they had good grounds for protest, and the correspondence with the Wai-wu Pu, copies of which were forwarded in despatch No. 312 to the Foreign Office of the 23rd July, 1906, took place. The draft of this despatch was shown to me, and, as I stated that I did not agree with it, Mr. Carnegie requested me to put my opinion in writing, so that he might be in a position to forward it with the despatch and leave the Foreign Office to decide between the two views. This I did, and my Memorandum on the subject, dated the 19th July, 1906, copy of which is annexed, was submitted by me to His Majesty's
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