Directory_and_Chronicle_1909 — Page 901

KIAOCHAU (TSINGTAU)

州膠 Kiáu-chau

Tsingtau, situated at the entrance to the Kiaochau Bay in Shantung, was occupied by a German squadron on the 14th November, 1897, in consequence of the murder of two German missionaries. It is held on lease from China for the term of ninety-nine years. The special attention of the Administration has been devoted to agricultural and mining development in the Protectorate. The local administration consists of a Council, which is composed of all the heads of the several administrative departments under the personal supervision of the Governor and four members chosen from the civil population and appointed for two years; the first is named by the Governor, with the consent of the Council, the second is chosen from among the members of the non-Chinese firms, the third from the list of taxpayers paying at least $50 ground tax, without distinction of nationality and the fourth from the Committee of the Chamber of Commerce. The Protectorate has developed to an unlooked-for extent under this system of administration, which has enabled all the vital questions at issue, such as legal rights, landed properties, land tax assessment, school and Church matters, to be satisfactorily settled. The object of the Administration in dealing with the land question has been to secure for every settler the lasting possession of his plot, thereby opposing unhealthy land speculation. Tsingtau, on the 22nd September, 1898, was de- clared a free port. The harbour has all the advantages of a Treaty port, and as a free port especially recommended itself as an emporium, since the merchant could there store, free of duty, his wares from abroad or his raw materials brought from the interior of China. The Chinese import duties were at first levied only on goods brought to Tsingtau by sea, when they were transported beyond the borders of the Protectorate into Chinese territory. The Chinese export duties were at first levied only on goods brought from the interior of China, when they were shipped from the German Protectorate to any other place. But in 1906 a new Convention came into force whereby Tsingtau ceased to be a free port, and the Imperial Maritime Customs now collects duties here as at all the other Treaty ports of China. But the Conven- tion stipulates that 20% of the money so collected at Tsingtau shall be paid to the Imperial German Government. The Commissioner of Customs in his report for 1906 comments on the arrangement as follows:-" The principal object of the arrangement, which moreover afforded the opportunity of a political rapprochement and material concessions for mutual benefit on both sides, was the creation and promotion of trade and commerce between the Pachtgebiet and the Chinese hinterland. The results of the first epoch have conclusively proved the wisdom of this novel arrangement. Under it trade developed beyond expectation and rose from a value of 2 million taels in 1899 to 22 millions in 1905, and Tsingtau, the former dilapidated fishing village, grew into a handsome city with a flourishing mercantile community and a considerable number of manufacturing establishments, giving promise of good profits and further develop- ment. Its success emboldened the merchants foreign and Chinese, to ask for, and the Government to agree to, going a step further and arrange for the limitation of the free area, which formerly comprised the whole Patchtgebiet, to the harbour on much the same lines as the German free ports Hamburg and Bremen. The chief advantage of this step lies in the removal of Customs control from the railway stations to the free area, and the consequent freedom of goods and passengers to pass in and out, from and to the hinterland, without hindrance or control of any kind-a traffic simplification from which a considerable increase in trade was expected. This expectation was realised during the first year. The total value of the import and export trade of the year-30.5 million Haikwan taels-showed an increase of 8.2 millions, or 33 per cent., over that of the previous year. Another feature deserving of record in this connexion is the influx of Chinese. The new arrangement the Com- missioner added has inspired confidence in the stability and future of the port and is attracting artisans, traders, and wealthy Chinese firms, which last, hitherto dealing with Chefoo, have until now kept aloof from this place. In his reprot on the trade of the port for 1907 the Commissioner was able to state that the gratifying develop- ment of trade which set in under the new Customs arrangement in 1906 continued

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