CO129-604-4 Immigration- control over entry from China 7-3-1947 - 5-11-1947 — Page 17

copy

Footnote on page 52 of

CONVENTION OF PEKING

17

Note:

ars to be a mistake for 20th January, 1841, see

This appear

below. X.

X.

SMUGGLING.

Between July, 1874, and March, 1875, a correspondence

passed relating to the complaints of the mercantile community in

Hong Kong against the action of Chinese revenue cruisers in the neighbour-

hood of that colony. This correspondence was laid before Parliament in

April, 1875 (C.1189). On the 1st December, 1874, the British Consul

at Canton drew up a report upon the subject, in which he pointed out how

the Treaty stipulations bore upon the first question, and the folloving is

an extract from that Report (page 41):-

"The Proclamation of Sir Charles, then Captain Eliot, of the 20th of

June, 1841, notified the cession of Hong Kong to the British Crown on

certain conditions, the first of which is: "All just charges and duties

to the Empire upon the commerce carried on there (Hong Kong), to be paid

as if the trade were conducted at Whampoa" (the anchorage at Canton).

Here, then, is an explicit acknowledgment of the right of the Chinese to

levy duties at Hong Kong. But the island had been only provisionally

ceded, and was in that position when the Proclamation of the 7th of

five months subsequently, was issued, upon which the petitions rely.

But by Article III of the Treaty of Nanking, of August the 29th, 184.2,

which followed the war of that year, the island was definitely conveyed ✦

the British Crown, and became part and parcel of Her Majesty's dom'

thus abrogating the two Proclamations above mentioned; and by the

The Supplementary of October 8th, 1843, which supplemented that of Nanking, it was på, Treaty of 8.10.1843

under Article XIII "should natives of China wish to repair to Hong k

to purchase goods, they shall have full nad free permission to do so,

should they require a Chinese vessel to carry away their purchases, they

must obtain a pass or port clearance for her at the Custom-House of the

part whence the vessel my sail from Hong Kong;" and, under Article

XIV, "An English officer will be appointed at Hong Kong, one part of

whose duty will be to examine registers and passes of all Chinese vessels

that may repair to that part to buy or sell goods; and sho`* s--”

4

Any time find at any Chinese merchant vessel

*

s to be ₫