CO129-558-11 Mission of Sir F. Leith-Ross to China- proposals for a Hong Kong - China customs... 29-9-1936 - 30-12-1936 — Page 41

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agreement on the lines of the 1930 draft Customs Agreement

discussed below.

ital X

Customs Agreement.

13.

A draft Agreement was negotiated in 1929/30

whereby the Chinese Maritime Customs were to be enabled

to operate in Hong Kong in collaboration with the Colonial

Government's Imports and Exports Department and to

collect in Hong Kong the Chinese customs dues on goods

destined for China.

draft

This Agreement failed to secure

A

ratification only through the last minute factious

opposition on the part of representatives of the late

Rumour alleged this opposition to be

regime in Canton.

due to personal interests in that régime in the smuggling

draft

trade which the, Agreement was designed to check.

draft

14.12. In return the Agreement provided for the retention

of Chinese national status as regards customs by goods

shipped from one Treaty Port to another via Hong Kong. There

is in fact an administrative order of the Chinese Maritime

Customs already in operation on this subject but it is

uncertain what its precise effect has been and whether it

extends to all goods. It would be better to have the

matter regularised in a formal agreement. There were also

provisions regarding salt, Chinese coastal traffic and

navigation of Chinese inland waters which are not immediately

important.

15. *. An Agreement on the 1930 lines would not

prejudice the position of Hong Kong as a free port and might

be expected to benefit both the Colony and China (the

latter principally through the resultant discouragement of

A semi-official enquiry has recently been

smuggling).

received