CO129-501-8 General policy in China 30-11-1926 - 30-11-1926 — Page 43

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located in Hong Kong. At this office correspondence was

carried on, returns for the Board of Trade and Revenue were

prepared and despatches, the office accounts kept and

disbursements made, but no dues or duties of any kind were

collected. The Commissioner himself and his European

assistants resided in Hong Kong island at the Peak.

7.

This arrangement was understood to be purely

temporary, for it had been clearly laid down in the agree-

ment signed on the 11th September, 1886, that the office of the Foreign Inspectorate of Chinese Maritime Customs

should be established on Chinese Territory at a convenient

spot in Kowloon. But no further action was taken by the

Hong Kong Government until a question was raised in 1890

as to whether the Commissioner of Customs for Kowloon and

District had authority to require British owned steam-

launches and yachts of this Colony to obtain his permission

before leaving the waters of the Colony and to issue "towing

certificates" to Hong Kong launches. In this connection

Kr. F. Fleming, then Officer Administering the Government,

wrote to Sir John Walsham, His Majesty's Minister at Peking,

on the 28th July, 1890, inquiring as to the exact position

of the Kowloon Commissioner, what powers he possessed, whom

he really represented and to whom he was responsible. Lir.

Fleming also addressed Lord Knutsford on the same subject

6 in despatch No. 287 of the 30th July, 1890. A reminder was

sent to Sir J. Walsham on the 22nd October, 1890: but no

reply was ever received from the Peking Legation or from

the Colonial Office, and the matter dropped into abeyance.

172757/1870

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