CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 83

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(REGE 16 JAN 13

JAN 1913

MEMORANDUM.

Vis Britannic "ajesty's Consul General presents his compliments to the Tu Tu and would beg; reference to his Memorandum of April 16 last on the subject of likin charges on goods carried by the Canton Kowloon Hailway. The comments thereon by the Treasury Department in June last were duly received through the Bureau of Foreign Affairs and transmitted to the Hongkong Government. latter consider these comments unsatisfactory anu avsire again to renew their protest against a lov, aistinctl, contrary to the terms of the Working Agreement.

The

The arguments made use of by the Treasury Department displa a lack of knowledge of pre-existing conditions, and the analogies cited by it do not apply in the case of this particular railwa,. In order to make the position clear it will, therefore, not be out of place to ruvies the past history of Kowloon and Lappa. These two ɛtations were opened in 1886 and placed under the control of the Maritime Customs for the purpose of carrying out the pru- visions of the Agreement with regard to opium, and the prevention of smuggling into and out of foreign waters. Opium apart, the, did not discharge, in respect of trane with Hongkong and Macao, the functions of the orainur} Customhouse at a Treat, port, nor did they enforce the Trent Tariff, but all trade by junk was placed under their supervision and on it the, collected auek according to th scale of the native Customhouse. To this da such is the procedure at Lappa, and until the railwa between Kowloon and Canton was completed, was it the pro- cedure at Kowloon. The representatives of the late Im- porial Government and that of Hongkong, however, having

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