This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[40911]
(No. 470.) Sir,
No. 1.
[November 23
40924
SECTION 21 DEC 08
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received November 23.)
Peking, October 25, 1908.
ON receipt of a despatch of the 15th instant from His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae, informing me that the amended Rules for the issue of exemption certificates for duty-paid foreign goods on the Shanghae-Nanking Railway, which, as I mentioned in my despatch No. 409 of the 14th September to you, it was anticipated would reach Peking in a few days, had not yet been submitted to the Acting Inspector-General of Customs because of difficulties raised by the officials of the local li-kin bureaux, I called at the Wai-wu Pu and made a strong complaint to his Excellency Yuan Shih-k'ai on the subject. Discussion and correspondence with the Board of Communications and Wai-wu Pu, I said, had been going on for over a year, and in May last the Wai-wu Pu had informed me that the Revenue Council fully agreed to the issue of the certificates. There was no question about the Treaty right, which was recognized, and the delay that had taken place was wholly unreasonable.
His Excellency promised to telegraph instructions to the Kiangsu authorities to hasten the issue of the certificates, and went on to make some observations upon the grievous obstruction to trade occasioned by li-kin levies generally, and upon the desirability of setting Article 8 of the Commercial Treaty of 1902 into operation as quickly as possible. These observations I propose to deal with in a separate despatch later on.
On the same day, the 23rd instant, I followed up my verbal complaint by a note to Prince Ch'ing, in which I repeated the language used to his Excellency Yuan. I have the honour to inclose copies of this note and of Sir Pelham Warren's despatch of the 15th instant for your information.
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
(No. 94.) Sir,
Consul-General Sir P. Warren to Sir J. Jordan,
Shanghae, October 15, 1908.
MR. WILKINSON saw the Commissioner of Customs at this port to-day on the subject of the issue of exemption certificates for foreign goods on the Shanghae-Nanking Railway.
In reply to inquiries he stated that the amended Rules, which he had drafted in consultation with his colleagues at Soochow, Chinkiang, and Nanking, had not yet been submitted to the Acting Inspector-General of Customs for approval. He had fully expected, as he had informed Mr. Wilkinson on the 7th September, that they would have been in the Acting Inspector-General's hands by the middle of that month, but a hitch had unexpectedly occurred. At the last moment objection had been made to the new Rules by the Kiangsu li-kin bureau officials, who, in spite of his protests, insisted on inserting certain amendments of their own into them which the Commissioner felt sure would not be accepted by the Diplomatic Body at Peking. He had communicated with the Acting Inspector-General, but had been informed by him that the matter was now out of his hands and the subject of direct negotiation between the Chinese Government and the Foreign Ministers. In the meanwhile he was pressing the Taotai, to whom he had handed his own draft of the amended Rules, to return them to him with the alterations demanded by the li-kin officials embodied in the text so that he could forward them without further delay to Peking. No good could be gained by further local discussion.
I have, &c.
(Signed) PELHAM L. WARREN.
[2020 s-6]
537
};
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government), O
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[40911]
(No. 470.) Sir,
No. 1.
[November 23
40924
SECTION 21 DEC 08
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received November 23.)
Peking, October 25, 1908. ON receipt of a despatch of the 15th instant from His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae, informing me that the amended Rules for the issue of exemption certificates for duty-paid foreign goods on the Shanghae-Nanking Railway, which, as I mentioned in my despatch No. 409 of the 14th September to you, it was anticipated would reach Peking in a few days, had not yet been submitted to the Acting Inspector-General of Customs because of difficulties raised by the officials of the local li-kin bureaux, I called at the Wai-wu Pu and made a strong complaint to his Excellency Yuan Shih-k'ai on the subject. Discussion and correspondence with the Board of Communicatious and Wai-wu Pu, I said, had been going on for over a year, and in May last the Wai-wu Pu had informed me that the Revenue Council fully agreed to the issue of the certificates. There was no question about the Treaty right, which was recognized, and the delay that had taken place was wholly unreasonable.
His Excellency promised to telegraph instructions to the Kiangsu authorities to hasten the issue of the certificates, and went on to make some observations upon the grievous obstruction to trade occasioned by li-kin levies generally, and upon the desirability of setting Article 8 of the Commercial Treaty of 1902 into operation as quickly as possible. These observations I propose to deal with in a separate despatch later on.
On the same day, the 23rd instant, I followed up my verbal complaint by a note to Prince Ch'ing, in which I repeated the language used to his Excellency Yuan. I have the honour to inclose copies of this note and of Sir Pelham Warren's despatch of the 15th instant for your information.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
J. N. JORDAN.
(No. 94.) Sir,
Consul-General Sir P. Warren to Sir J. Jordan,
Shanghae, October 15, 1908. MR. WILKINSON saw the Commissioner of Customs at this port to-day on the subject of the issue of exemption certificates for foreign goods on the Shanghae-Nanking Railway.
In reply to inquiries he stated that the amended Rules, which he had drafted in consultation with his colleagues at Soochow, Chinkiang, and Nanking, had not yet been submitted to the Acting Inspector-General of Customs for approval. He had fully expected, as he had informed Mr. Wilkinson on the 7th September, that they would have been in the Acting Inspector-General's hands by the middle of that month, but a hitch had unexpectedly occurred. At the last moment objection had been made to the new Rules by the Kiangsu li-kin bureau officials, who, in spite of his protests, insisted on inserting certain amendments of their own into them which the Commissioner felt sure would not be accepted by the Diplomatic Body at Peking. He had communicated with the Acting Inspector-General, but had been informed by him that the matter was now out of his hands and the subject of direct negotiation between the Chinese Government and the Foreign Ministers. In the meanwhile he was pressing the Taotai, to whom he had handed his own draft of the amended Rules, to return them to him with the alterations demanded by the li-kin officials embodied in the text so that he could forward them without further delay to Peking. No good could be gained by further local discussion.
I have, &c.
(Signed) PELHAM L. WARREN.
[2020 s-6]
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