[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[29140]
No. 1.
166
August 31.]
SECTION 1.
(No. 162.) Sir,
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 31.)
Tokió, July 22, 1907. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Vice-Consul at Dairen inclosing a translation of the Provisional Customs Regulations in force in the Kwangtung Province.
It will be observed that the sudden enforcement of the tariff has caused some inconvenience to merchants, but, in view of the fact that this enforcement is largely due to the action of His Majesty's Government and this Embassy, I have instructed Mr. Parlett that it is undesirable for him to take any action to assist merchants to escape from its effects, should he be requested to do so.
Mr. Parlett has forwarded a copy of his despatch to His Majesty's Minister at Peking.
I have, &c.
(Signed) CLAUDE M. MACDONALD.
(No. 27.) Sir,
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Vice-Consul Parlett to Sir C. MacDonald.
Dairen, July 5, 1907. I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a translation, made in this Office, of the Provisional Customs Regulations in force in the leased territory of the Kwangtung Province. In addition, I inclose the Japanese text-which is to be regarded in case of dispute as the correct one-together with the English version used by the Customs. The last is really not a translation at all, but the original draft drawn up by Mr. Kurosawa, the Commissioner of Customs at Dairen, and it is on this that the Japanese text is based.
As will be seen from the translation made in this Office, there are certain differences between the Japanese text and the Customs version; but they are not of cardinal importance, as far as I can gather; while the brevity and conciseness of the Customs version make it to foreign merchants, not only more useful, but more intelligible, than the translation made by me.
Mr. Kurosawa told me yesterday that he had received loyal support both from the Japanese authorities and from the Manchurian Railway Company. The latter gave him every facility in procuring examination sheds, &c., at the wharves and office accomo- dation at the railway station itself; in fact, had it not been for the assistance so cordially extended to him by the Government and the railway, he very much doubted whether the opening of the Customs on the 1st July would have been more than a mere opening in name.
A certain amount of not entirely unreasonable dissatisfaction seems to have been caused by neither Government giving notice of the enforcement of the Customs tariff sufficiently long in advance to permit of merchants in the port getting rid of stock already on hand. The loudest outcry comes, however, not from the small merchants, who, so Mr. Kurosawa says, pay their dues without complaint, but from the bigger and wealthier firms, like the Mitsui Bussan Kwaisha, and others.
I have, &c. (Signed) HAROLD G. PARLETT,
[2621 hh-1]
B
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