CO129-540-13 Proposal by Chinese Government to establish vice-consulate in Hong Kong 6-6-1932 - 30-12-1932 — Page 42

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reaching China during September and October without

consular invoices.

Such goods would simply pay fee of

5 gold units to customs. Goods arriving during November

or December without invoices would only pay a fine of

twice the amount of invoice fee but from January 1st on-

wards full fine would be levied on goods without invoices.

You will see that as consignments probably take five or six

weeks to reach China, we benefit little from concessions

during September and October and I feel therefore that we

should press for say further two months delay during which

no fee is levied. It was pointed out to me that such

procedure would enable Chinese Government to see where

Chinese Consuls or substitutes may be appointed according

to volume of trade in particular region. With regard to

question of minimum value of consignments head of department felt that this would hardly affect consignments from United Kingdom etc. which would not be likely to be so

small. In any case small consignments could always be

transmitted by parcel post free. I know for a fact that

Japan will be very hard hit by $200 figure in view of her

junk trade.

4.

In reply to further enquiries on my part I was informed that new regulations had been drawn up not for purposes of revenue but to enable Chinese Government to be furnished with trede valuation statistics from foreign countries, a task which customs were unable to undertake.

5. Official consulted informed me Chinese Legation in London had been instructed several times to ascertain from Foreign Office whether appointment of Chinese Consul

in

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