16
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government O
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[13445]
No. 1.
14294
[April 19:12 MAY 10
SECTION 1.
Sir,
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.-(Received April 19.)
Board of Trade, April 18, 1910.
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to advert to your letter of the 12th March with its enclosures, relative to the new rates for the carriage of kerosene oil to Makden from Dalny and Newchwang respectively on the South Manchurian Railway.
In reply I am to state that whilst the equality of these rates may eliminate the advantage which the closer proximity to Newchwang of Mukden would have afforded to traders in the former town had the rates been fixed strictly in accordance with the number of miles traversed on either route, the Board do not think that His Majesty's Government could properly demand that this method of determining the rates should be adopted.
The Board have previously called attention to the common practice of railway companies charging equal rates for the carriage of goods to the same destination from competing ports situated at different distances from that destination, and although this practice might, possibly, in extreme cases be held to involve undue discrimination in favour of one port as against another, they are not altogether convinced that the present case is one of so unusual a character as to warrant interference on the part of His Majesty's Government.
As illustrating the practice in question, I am to ask you to direct Sir E. Grey's attention to the evidence given by Sir E. Gibb before Lord Jersey's Commission on Railway Rates (Preferential Rates) with regard to grain rates from ports on the North Eastern Railway system.
Sir George Gibb said :---
"The ports which are distant in a group between 40 and 72 miles from Leeds are grouped together at one rate, 6s. 3d., and that group contains a mileage rate for conveyance per ton-mile varying from 0-642d. for the longest to 0.975d. for the shortest." (Vide Cd. 2960 of 1906, Question No. 4904.)
An even more striking instance of the practice in question is furnished by the rates from Durban and East London to Johannesburg, which are identical for all classes of goods, although the distance in the former case is 485 miles and in the latter cases 667 miles, the difference between these two distances being considerably greater than that between the distances from Dalny and Newchwang respectively to Mukden. It is of course conceivable that the principle of equal rates irrespective of distance might be so applied as to render nugatory in practice the accord of equal opportunity to British trade by crippling inland transport from Newchwang. The Board do not, however, find themselves in a position to decide whether the present instance (which appears to affect mainly the interests of the Asiatic Petroleum Company (Limited) is a sufficiently extreme one to justify a formal protest to the Japanese Government. At the same time they appreciate the fact that such a protest, though not in itself likely to lead to a successful result, might retard the further manipulation of the rates to our detriment, and that in this particular His Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers on the spot are probably better able to judge than they can be. They accordingly content themselves with suggesting this point for Sir E. Grey's consideration.
I am, &c.
GEO. J. STANLEY.
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