508
714/18.
present of
value at all.
(b) The guarantee not to impose customs dues to go.
in
This refers to a declaration made in Lord Salisbury's
note of 14th October, 1899, to the American Ambassador, the following terms:- "His Majesty's Goverment would be willing, in the event of customs duties being at any time imposed on goods reaching Wei-hai-wei by sea, that they should be collected on behalf of China at the Chinese Treaty rate, and the proceeds remitted to the Chinese Government". In reply to an enquiry in 1918 Foreign Office stated that they regarded this declaration as binding. We have evaded
it by the imposition of "shipping dues" which are really 41
Custans dues, but our conduct in that respect is perhaps more characteristic of Chinese practice than of the stan- dard of integrity which we like to claim as English.
(c) The guarantee to Germany, not to build a railway,
to go.
This Sir E.Stubbs does not regard as of very great practical importance at present. In any case the Colonial
It has already Office holds that guarantee to be void. been pointed out that it would be convenient to have this
made clear.
—
(d) Sir E.Stubbs makes a suggestion as to a possible quid pro quo to be offered to China for a settlement of terms of tenure viz: abandonment of the right to erect fortifications and station troops in certain districts out- side the leased territory. The right is certainly of very doubtful value*, and Mr.Churchill will no doubt consider whether it would be objectionable on principle to barter it away for more tangible advantages.
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