CO129-517-1 Administration and function of Chinese Maritime customs- prevention of smuggling across Chinese frontiers 7-2-1929 - 15-11-1929 — Page 149

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APPENDIX NO. 2.

Rough outline of suggested plan of co-operation between

the Hongkong Government and the Chinese Maritime Customs

for the safeguarding of China's Customs Revenue and for

the securing of reciprocal benefits to trade and commerce.

The Chinese Customs office in Hongkong which was

established in April 1887, was opened there by virtue of the

Opium Agreement of 1886, and by this Agreement the four

Stations already existing for the control of traffic in the

delta, one at Capsuimoon, one at Changohow, one at Fotochow

and the fourth at Kowloon, were placed under the Kowloon

Commissioner.

When the New Territory was handed over to the

Hongkong Government in 1899, in accordance with the terms

of the Convention of 1898 for the Extension of Hongkong,

these Stations

-

with the temporary exception of Kowloon -

were elosed, and new Stations and Frontier Guard Posts were

established at various distant points along the new frontier;

while the Chinese waters, outside the British area, were

patrolled by the Customs Revenue Cruisers.

On the completion of the Canton-Kowloon Railway

in October 1911 a Chinese Maritime Customs Examination and

Duty-collecting Station was, by mutual agreement, opened at

the Kowloon terminus (mainly for the convenience of the Hong-

kong merchants), and has functioned there ever since, a fact

which creates an invaluable precedent for the further exten-

sion of Chinese Customs activities within Hongkong territory.

At