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live the boycott!"
The strike pickets wore withdrawn:
but the strike picket organization was not disbanded and
still exists, while anti-British Bolshevik influence
remained as powerful as before.
15. On the 13th October Mr. Brenan telegraphed
that the Canton Government had opened a tax office near
the Custom House at Canton and was collecting the new
taxes. None of the foreign consuls at Canton had pro-
tested. He added:- "The Consular Body, the Commissioner
Othor-
of Customs and the foreign Chamber of Commerce are
unanimously of opinion that, if the tax is to continue,
it should be collected entirely by the Customs.
rise the Government will set up a separate organization
with a corps of inspectors, who will merely be pickets
in another uniform and will harass trade and persons of every nationality, not only British". He also pointed
out that, if the Powers protested against the new taxes
but did not back their protest by force, they would
merely tie their hands as regards the Chinese Maritime
Customs and that we should then have a separate Cantonese
collectorate of taxes which would be dangerous to the
existence of the Customs administration (telegram No.49
to Foreign Office).
16. Meanwhile the Shan-tung provincial authori-
ties, who had for some time been levying special taxos on vinos and tobacco at the open port of Tsingtao in
violation of our treaties and in spite of consular
protests, issued regulations for a new "goods tax" to be
lovied throughout the province, nominally in licu of likin. Sir R. Macloay tolographed this information to
the
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