3
Sir,
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Prince Ching to Sir J. Jordan.
May 25, 1911. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency's note of the 19th instant (précis of note quoted).
My board at once requested the Canton Viceroy by telegraph to take the necessary steps, and the latter now replies that orders have already been given for the withdrawal of taxation on all foreign opium imported prior to the 8th instant.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
I avail, &c.
(Seal of Wai-wn Pa.)
Sir,
Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
Opium Merchants to Commissioner of Customs.
May 12, 1911. We beg to inform you that last week the Ying Fat Yuen hong cleared from us four chests uncertificated Malwa opium. The opium arrived in Amoy on the 8th instant, and the customs officials there insist on the payment of duty and li-kin on this lot at 350 taels per picul, unless he can produce the necessary permit from you.
As we can guarantee that these four chests were uncertificated opium, and can prove this from our books, we shall be much obliged if you will be good enough to issue the necessary permit.
Yours, &c.
E. D. SASSOON AND CO.
P.S.-These four chests arrived by the "Delta," the 17th February, 1910.
Governor Sir F. Lugard to Sir J. Jordan.
Hong Kong, May 15, 1911. Sir,
I HAVE the honour to forward, for your Excellency's information, copy of a despatch which I have addressed to the Governor-General of India on the subject of the new Opium Agreement with China.*
2. I take this opportunity of enclosing also a copy of a joint letter by four local opium merchants pointing out that certain chests of uncertificated opium in transit between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and coasts ports on the Sth May, 1911, had to pay the enhanced duty levied on opium, and I shall be glad if your Excellency will take steps to obtain a refund to the merchants concerned.
I have, &c.
F. D. LUGARD.
Enclosure 6 in No. 1.
Commissioner of Customs to Opium Merchants.
Dear Sirs,
May 13, 1911. WITH reference to your application concerning four chests uncertificated Malwa opium which arrived in Amoy on the 8th instant, and for which you request Kowloon passes, I beg to say that my instructions were to issue such passes for opium in stock in Hong Kong and checked by me on the 8th May. I regret that I cannot accede to your request.
Yours, &c.
A. H. HARRIS.
Sir,
Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
Opium Merchants to Governor Sir F. Lugard.
May 13, 1911.
WE beg to inform you that on the 6th instant Mr. E. Pabaney shipped to Shanghai, per steam-ship "Chinhua," 100 chests Bengal opium, of which 37 chests were uncertificated, and 63 chests were certificated. As the opium arrived in Shanghai after the new agreement came into force on the Sth instant, the customs authorities in Shanghai refuse to pass the uncertified opium under the old tariff. Considering that all the stocks of uncertified opium in Hong Kong and the treaty ports on the 8th instant have been passed for 110 taels duty, it is unreasonable that such opium in transit between Hong Kong, Shanghai, and coast ports on that date should have to pay the enhanced duty.
Another instance of a similar nature has arisen with regard to four chests uncertificated Malwa shipped to Amoy by a local dealer, Ying Fat Yuen. We beg to enclose copies of correspondence between Messrs. E. D. Sassoon and Co., and the Commissioner of Customs on the subject, from which you will gather the necessary particulars.
We shall be much obliged if you will kindly bring the matter to the notice of His Britannic Majesty's Minister at Peking.
We have, &c.
DAVID SASSOON AND Co. (Limited).
E. SHELLIM, Manager,
E. D. SASSOON AND CO.
E. PABANEY.
A. J. RAYMOND,
* Not printed.
(per pro S. J. David and Co).
Sir,
Enclosure 7 in No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Governor Sir F. Lugard.
Peking, May 31, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency despatch of the 15th instant, in which you were good enough to enclose copy of a communication which you had addressed to the Viceroy of India on the subject of the new Opium Agreement with China.
Your Excellency also forwarded to me copy of a joint letter from four local opium merchants regarding the levy of the enhanced duty on certain chests of uncertificated opinn which were in transit between Hong Kong and the treaty ports of China on the 8th May, 1911, the date of the signature of the agreement.
In reply, I have the honour to inform you that this question had already been brought to my notice by the opium merchants both at Shanghai and Hong Kong through the medium of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation. It was held here that the proper construction of the agreement of the 8th May was that opium in transit on that day between the treaty ports in China was liable to the old duty of 110 taels, but that exemption from the new duty of 350 taels could not be claimed for uncertificated opium which was passing between Hong Kong and a treaty port in China on the 8th May.
To begin with, the Chinese Government had been extremely reluctant to give opium stored in Hong Kong the benefits of the new arrangement, and in construing the agreement they refused to consider Hong Kong as on the same level with the treaty ports in China. Had the amount been small, they might have been prepared to stretch a point, but when they found that it was 341 chests, they definitely refused to consider it, and pointed to the fact that over 4,600 chests of certified opium had been cleared at Shanghai at the old rate of duty just before the 8th May. This had, from their point of view, deprived them of a revenue of considerably over 1,000,000 taels, and they absolutely declined to undergo any further pecuniary sacrifice.
The opium merchants also represented to me that, although the Imperial edict proclaimed in Canton abolished all illegal taxation from the 10th May, the provincial
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