PS
63
So
hng fire, though the draft has on our side been approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies and by the Foreign Office and Board of Trade, while the Commissioner for the Chinese Imperial Maritime HI Customs is satisfied on behalf of China. It was however understood that the initiative should be taken by the Canton Viceroy, since the Agreement is m on the whole probably much more important to China than to this Colony. important indeed was it considered to be for China to obtain this Customs Agreement that I had made it a condition precedent to my concurrence that it should be negotiated simultaneously with the Working Agreement for the Railway and it was believed it would afford a powerful lever in securing finality in the latter. Seeing however that the Working Agreement is now prac- tically settled, and does not admit of any delay (since through rimning will comence in 3 weeks) it has been necessary to in- clude this Customs Clause and you will observe that it is agreed to by the Chinese negotiator on behalf of his Government.
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the circumstances therefore I would request you to obtain the assent of the Chinese Government to the deletion of the last 12 words of this clause (37) viz.:-"when agreed upon between the Hongkong Government and the Imperial Chinese Government"- since they are no longer necessary.
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10. The rules contained in Schedule D secure for China the very important privilege of collecting Railway Customs duties at the Kowloon terminal, where if desired examination sheds and office accommodation shuts may be provided, etc. In return for allowing her officials to function in a British Colony we demand in the last two sub-sections of Schedule D that duti- able goods and goods taking out transit documents shall be free from all importa whatsoever other than the Import Tariff of 1902 and transit dues(if any) or the Export Tariff of 1858, as the case may be, or any future revisina of those instruments. It is of course understood (and this might perhaps be more clearly
expressed
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