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The total trade of Hong Kong for 1919 amounted to about £171,793,000: of this total, £7,822,000 only was trade with the United Kingdom. The total shipping entering and clearing the port during 1919 reached 649,168 vessels of 35,615,169 aggregate tons. As to the nationality of the ships, nearly 4,000 British ocean- going vessels came and went, compared with a total of 5.274 foreign ships of the same type. The percentage of total tonnage (ocean and coasting steamers) passing through Hong Kong Harbour in 1913 and 1918 was—
British
Japanese American German
Dutch
French Chinese
1918.
1918.
47-72
37-50
21.59
35-41
3.06
3.75
12.50
3.75
6.87
1.70
3.12
3.06
8.75
Appendix I gives a list of the principal British industrial concerns in Hong Kong, and Appendix II the principal general merchants.
II.-Leases.
The Kowloon Extension (area 356 square miles, leased for ninety-nine years by the Convention of the 9th June, 1898). The population is 93.400, exclusively Chinese. This territory was acquired for strategic reasons for the defences of Hong Kong.
Wei-hai-Wei, in Shantung, includes the island of Liu-Kung and a belt of land 10 miles wide along the coast line of the bay (area 285 square miles, leased for so long a period as Port Arthur shall remain in the occupation of Russia." by the Convention of the 1st July, 1898). The population was 147,000 in 1911. Wei-hai- Wei has never been developed either as a naval station, for which purpose it was acquired, or as a commercial port.
III.--Concessions (Residential).
Concessions under perpetual lease are held by Great Britain at Tientsin, Hankow, Canton, Amoy, Chinkiang, Kiukiang and Newchwang (three-quarters of this has been washed away by the river). The total area, excluding Newchwang and the extensions at Hankow (74 acres) and Tientsin (1,059 acres), is approximately 233 acres.
The present total value of the concession lots and buildings is estimated to exceed £2,500,000.
IV. Settlements.
The distinction between concessions and settlements is thus defined. The leasing of a concession is made from Government to Government under consideration of a nominal ground rent. In the case of settlements, foreigners rent their land within a prescribed area (1) in perpetuity, or (2) at an expropriation price and for a term of years, generally thirty, renewable at option.
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The principal settlement in China is the International Settlement of Shanghai. This is administered by a municipal council, elected annually by foreign land-renters and ratepayers, and consisting of not more than nine and not less than five persons. Of these the majority is always British, thus indicating the importance of Great Britain's holding in this miniature but valuable republic.
The foreign population of this international settlement in 1920 was 23,307. Of these 10,215 were Japanese, 5,341 British, 2.264 Americans, 1.301 Portuguese, 1,266 Russians.
General foreign settlements also exist at Woosung, Amoy (island of Kulangsu), Changsha, Wuhu, Nanking, Hangchow and Soorhow.
V-Spheres of Influence.
Great Britain's' claim to a sphere of influence in the Yangtsze valley is based on the Chinese Declaration of 1898, given in return for one of the Japanese war indem- nity loans, that any territory in the Yangtsze valley would never be alienated to another Power. This was confirmed by our agreement with Russia of the 28th April, 1899. in which Russia recognised our sphere. That His Majesty's Government has construed the Chinese declaration to connote priority for British claims for railway construction and industrial enterprises, may at first sight appear presumptuous, but as Sir J Jordan wrote in his despatch No. 257 of the 2nd July, 1914, "Britain is the
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only Great Power to-day in China who has not converted any of her railway conces sions into national undertakings, but has invariably maintained them as Chinese enterprises. All the other Powers Russia, Japan, France and Germany--chose for the most part to make their railways national undertakings and fix their own tariffs. We alone made ours Chinese State railways and left the control in the hands of the Chinese. We could not, therefore, afford to let Japan or any other Power build railways in the Yangtsze valley and utilise them, in the approved fashion of Korea and Manchuria, for the purpose of undermining our immense trade interests in the Yangtsze valley.
Except in this preventive sense. it is hard to interpret the meaning of our sphere of influence in the Yangstze valley, which certainly never tried to aim at any form of national or territorial differentiation. We have financed and constructed for the Chinese Government over 800 miles of railway in the Yangtsze valley, and we hold loan agreements for some 2.000 more (see Appendix IV).
The area of the Yangtsze sphere has been defined in answer to a parliamentary question (the 23rd February, 1899) as follows: "The valley or basin of the Yangtsze presumably includes, according to the ordinary meaning, the provinces of which the streams run into that river.'
VI. Diplomatic, Consular and Military; Post Offices.
Besides the Legation at Peking, His Majesty's Government has consuls-general at Shanghai. Canton, Tientsin, Hankow, Yunnan-fu and Kashgar; consuls at Amoy, Changsha, Chefoo, Chengtu, Chinkiang, Dairen, Foochow Hanchow, Harbin, Ichang. Kiukiang. Kiungchow (and Pakhoi), Mukden, Nanking. Newchwang, Swatow, Tengyuch, Tsinan, Wuchow and Wuhu: and vice-consuls at Chungking, Ningpo and Tsingtao.
The number of British troops in China in 1920 were:-
North China... South China...
Officers.
6 91
Other ranks.
150
974
(This includes the Hong Kong garrison, and excludes Indian native troops.)
Great Britain has post offices in the following places: Amoy, Canton, Chefoo, Foochow, Hankow, Hoihow, Ningpo, Shanghai, Swatow. Tientsin and Wei-hai-Wei; in Tibet, at Gyantse, Phagri and Yatung; in Kashgaria, at Kashgar.
VII. Population (Foreign).
1903.
1913.
1919.
19201
British..
5,662
8,966
18,284
11,082
American
2,542
5,340
6,660
7,269
French...
1,213
2,292
4,400
2,753
Portuguese
1,930
3,486
2,890
2,282
German
1,658
2,949
1,385
1,013
Ruggian
361
56,765
148,170
144,413
5,287
80,219
171,485
158,918
Japanese
VIII. Shipping.
During 1920, out of a total tonnage of 104,266,695 tons of shipping entering and clearing from Chinese ports, 40,315.707 tons were British. The tables given in Appendices V and VI show that even during the worst years of the war the prepon- derance of British shipping in the Chinese ports was well maintained. Japanese shipping has not increased so much as might have been expected, and American competition, though it has greatly increased, especially since 1918, is still a long way behind.
The names of the principal shipping firms, British and foreign, are given in Appendix VII. Of these eleven are British, six American and five Japanese.
IX. Banking and Insurance.
The senior British bank in China is the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China; but so far as China is concerned, it has been outdistanced by its rival,
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