36
THE BRITISH COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH CHINA
or works on them and for the loss which may be caused by such damage. In the event of China desiring to prohibit the use of some particular shallow waterway by launches, because there is reason to fear that the use of it by them would be likely to injure the banks and cause damage to the adjoining country, the British authorities, when appealed to, shall, if satisfied of the validity of the objection, prohibit the use of that waterway by British launches, provided that Chinese faunches are also prohibited from using it.
Both Foreign and Chinese launches are prohibited from crossing dams and weirs at present in existence on inland waterways where they are likely to cause injury 10 such works, which would be detrimental to the water service of the local people.
5.—The main object of the British Government in desiring to see the inland waterways of China opened to steam navigation being to afford facilities for the rapid transport of both foreign and native merchandise, they undertake to offer no impedi- ment to the transfer to a Chinese company and the Chinese flag of any British steamer which may now or hereafter be employed on the inland waters of China should the owner be willing to make the transfer.
In event of a Chinese company registered under Chinese law being formed to run steamers on the inland waters of China the fact of British subjects holding shares in such a company shall not entitle the steamers to fly the British flag.
6.-Registered steamers and their tows are forbidden, just as junks have always been forbidden, to carry contraband goods. Infraction of this rule will entail the penalties prescribed in the Treaties for such an offence, and cancellation of the Inland Waters Navigation Certificate carried by the vessels, which will be prohibited from thereafter plying on inland waters.
7.- As it is desirable that the people living inland should be disturbed as little as possible by the advent of steam vessels to which they are not accustomed, inland waters not hitherto frequented by steamers shall be opened as gradually as may be convenient to merchants and only as the owners of steamers may see prospects of remunerative trade.
In cases where it is intended to run steam vessels on waterways on which such vessels have not hitherto run, intimation shall be made to the Commissioner of Customs at the nearest open port who shall report the matter to the Ministers of Commerce. The latter, in conjunction with the Governor-General or Governor of the Province, after careful consideration of all the circumstances of the case, shall at once give their approval.
8.-A registered steamer may ply within the waters of a port, or from one open port or ports to another open port or ports, or from one open port or ports of places inland, and thence back to such port or ports. She may, on making due report to the Customs, land or ship passengers or cargo at any recognised places of trade passed in the course of the voyage; but may not ply between inland places exclusively except with the consent of the Chinese Government.
9.-Any cargo and passenger boats may be towed by steamers. The helmsman and crew of any boat towed shall be Chinese. All boats, irrespective of ownership, must be registered before they can proceed inland.
10.-These Rules are supplementary to the Inland Steam Navigation Regulations of July and September, 1898. The latter, where untouched by the present Rules, remain in full force and effect; but the present Rules hold in the case of such of the former Regulations as the present Rules affect. The present Rules, and the Regulations of July and September, 1898, to which they are supplementary, are provisional and may be modified, as circumstances require, by mutual consent.
Done at Shanghai this fifth day of September, in the year of Our Lord, 1902, corresponding with the Chinese date, the fourth day of the eighth moon of the twenty-eighth year of Kwang Hsü.
[L.S.] JAS. L. MACKAY.
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