CO129-367 - Acting Governor May - 1910 [6-7] — Page 24

OP Y.

Enclosure 1.

Sir,

20717

RECO

Government House,

Hongkong, 4th. May, 1910.

22

C

I have the honour to inform Your Excellency

that my attention has been drawn to Articles III and IV of the Additional Convention of Commerce between France and China, signed at Peking on the 26th. June, 1887, (Hertslet p. 312)

which provide:-

(a). that foreign goods imported to Yunnan and Kuangai from Tonkin shall only pay 70% of the import duties collected by the Customs at the Coast Ports of China:

(b). that produce exported from China to Tonkin shall only pay 50% of the export duties in force at the Treaty Ports:

(c). that Chinese produce which has paid import duties under Article XI of the Treaty of 1886 and is transported through Tonkin to a port of shipment in Cochin-China, shall, if ex- -ported thence to any other place than China, pay export duties according to the Franco-Annamite tariff.

2.

It has been suggested to me that Russia, Japan and Germany may perhaps under the "most favoured nation clause" have claimed similar privileges in the North of China and I shall be glad if Your Excellency will be good enough to inform me whether this is the case, and if so whether the similar privileges can be claimed for this Colony.

I have etc.,

(sd.) F. H. May,

Officer Administering the Govern-`

-ment.

His Britannic Majesty's Charge d'Affaires,

PEK IN G.