CO129-517-1 Administration and function of Chinese Maritime customs- prevention of smuggling across Chinese frontiers 7-2-1929 - 15-11-1929 — Page 171

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under his immediate orders.

This explains why the Inspectorate

of Customs also administers the "Marine Department" or

Lights Service; and it also explains why the up-keep of

the Marine Deaprtment costs so little! For it should be

considered that it derives great pecuniary benefits from its

association with the Customs Revenue Department. At most

of the Treaty-ports, for example, there are no Marine

Department officers, and in such places, therefore, Customs

Revenue officers now perform Marine Department work under the

technical advice of the Head of the Marine Department (the Coast Inspector), and their salaries are not a charge on the

Tonnage Dues Account, but are paid from Revenue funds, thus

freeing large sums of money for the provision and maintenance

of aids to navigation. If the Marine Department no longer

remained a branch of the Customs establishment, it would,

of course, be necessary to very materially increase the staff.

It is also to be noted that since all the harbours at the

Treaty-ports, with the exception of Shanghai, Tientsin and

Canton, are at present administered by officers of the

Revenue Department, the salaries concerned are paid from the

Revenue, not the Tonnage Dues, Account, and that even at the

three ports above-mentioned, although the technical staff is

drawn from the Marine Department, the actual control of the

harbours comes under the local Commissioner of Customs:

i.e., he functions as a sort of local Port Authority. It

is evident, therefore, that if the Marine Department were to

become a separate organisation, additional charges on the

Tonnage Dues Account would result.

For many years past, the Board of Communications

have from time to time tentatively raised the question of transferring the control of the Marine Department from the Board of Finance (and the Inspectorate of Customs) to the

Board.

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