20.
229
(All this is to be
found in loose file re Anglo- Chinese Customs Agreement Vol. I in Chancery).
make out, as it stood in 1911) with one small amend-
ment in Article 5 about carriage of mails to non-
open ports, and the addition of an explanation of
Article 5 (a), on the subject of inland navigation
rights, which appeared to the Legation unexception-
able. In December 1918, when the consent of H.M.G.,
the Chinese Government and everybody else concerned,
appeared to have been obtained, the Hongkong
Government (Mr. Severn as 0.A.G. having replaced
Sir H. May) suddenly asked for a postponement of
signature. The Legation were, however, by now
seriously involved with the Chinese Government in
the arrangements for signature and in March 1919
informed Hongkong that all was ready, when on April
28, 1919, Mr. Severn wrote saying that his Government
could not agree to signature, the reasons given
being that the Government of Hong kong could not
agree to any tax of salt in the Colony (though this
had all along formed one of the provisions of the
agreement), that the Chinese Government had pro-
crastinated so much that the agreement was now out
of date, that the balance of advantage was too much
on the Chinese side, and that in any case owing to
the disaffection of the southern party, the actual
operation of the agreement might be indefinitely
postponed. The Legation referred the matter to
the 7.0. Sir R.E. Stubbs, on his arrival, sup-
ported Mr. Severn's arguments, saying that Hong-
kong could not possibly increase the cost of salt to the poor by imposing a tax which in China it- self was only nominal, that the tax would drive away the salt-using trades from the Colony, and that
/even
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