CO129-582-5 Merchant Shipping Amendment Ordinance 1939 15-5-1939 - 22-1-1940 — Page 4

12 F.D. F5386/148/10

21/11/39

( Tel. from Shanghai 10.85 of June 5th)

4

At (1) the Governor forwarded a draft Bill

to amend the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, designed

to enable the Harbour Master to refuse a port

clearance in the case of a ship intending to

proceed to a port of China which has not been opened

Treaty of to foreign trade. Under article 47 of the/Tientsin

is

any vessel trading to such a port su liable to

confiscation by the Chinese authorities, and as this

possibility was considered a sufficient deterrent

in itself, article 47 of the Tientsin Treaty has not

hitherto been implemented by any specific

provisions in the Hong Kong Merchant Shipping

Ordinance. In practice, however, it may be inferred

from paragraph 3 of the Governor's despatch at 11 that

British ships are, in fact, given a clearance to

trade to unopened ports, and the Chinese Customs

Preventive Service is no longer able to exercise its

right of confiscation. The proposed amendment is,

therefore, designed to facilitate the preventive

work of the Chinese Customs.

In his despatch at

11 the Governor suggests an addition to the proposed

amendment. I confess I do not see the real force of

this addition; it seems to me merely to emphasise the proposed amendment, though not to alter its

intention in any way.

I presume the main concern of the Chinese

Customs Service in this matter must be to try to

avoid loss of customs revenue and to suppress

possible