Directory_and_Chronicle_1933 — Page 432

374

CHINA.,

Japanese army. The appalling floods in the fertile Yangtze Valley were disastrous, to life, property, and trade, paralysing inany great arteries and distributing centres of commerce, including the Wu-Han cities. With a Government absorbed with so many troubles and hampered as t military measures by flooded country, little progress of a permanent nature was made during the year with the campaign against the communist forces, who continue to throttle trade in the large areas of Kiangsi, Huuan, and Hupel that they control; and brigandage remains a constant and growing threat to the carrying on of agricultural pursuits and business generally in almost all isolated parts of the country. By the very destitution that they bring about the numbers of these communist and bandit forces are being strengthened daily. They have become already nothing less than a menace to the economic life of the country and, as a prospective element of disruption, a cause of grave anxiety as to the future These matters are merely outlined here, being dealt with in greater detail in the paragraphs, devoted to synopses of trade at the ports.

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In the course of the year under review many fiscal measures of special interest. and importance were introduced. A revised and increased Import Tariff was brought into force on 1st January and a new Export Tariff on 1st June, while a temporary flood relief surtax on revenue was imposed as from 1st December. On the other hand, likin dues, transit dues, coast trade duty, Native Customs duty collected by the Superintendents of Custoins at stations outside a radius of 50 l from the treaty ports, and Native Customs duty collected by the Commissioners of Customs under the Inspector General at stations within a 50-li radius of the treaty ports were all abolished. The abolition of these dues and duties was a long-anticipated move on the part of the Government towards the elimination of taxation on domestic trade; and the serious sacrifice of revenue that the Government have thus forgone in the interests of internal trade and, indirectly, in the interests of the foreign trade of the country also, certainly should be set against the cost to commerce and industry of the above-mentioned higher Import and Export Tariff schedules of 1931. cidently with the removal of all Native Customs and likin barriers, which of course, left the long coast-line of the country quite unprotected and open to smugglers, besides leaving no provision for the control of junks trading with places abroad and for the collection of revenue on goods entering or leaving the country by such craft, the Government entrusted to the Maritime Customs. the maintenance and service of a chain of junk stations along the coast, and 148 of these stations were under Customs administration at the end of the year. Besides these stations, a series of ports of call, for Chinese-flag vessels only, were opened in the Upper Yangtze Gorges, namely, Patung, Wushan, Kweifu, Yünyang, Chungchow, Fengtu, Fowchow, and Changshow; while Huluto was opened as a sub-office of the Chinwangtao Customs and Fuchow- wan as a sub-office of the Newchwang Customs. It is not surprising to find, with the introduction of the higher tariffs that have been the natural outcome of the recovery of tariff autonomy by the Government, that sinuggling has now become one of the most common offences against the State and its prevention one of the most serious fiscal questions of the day. The inauguration by the Customs, therefore, of a special Preventive Secretariat during the course of the year should not pass un- recorded. The anti-smuggling and anti-fraud ineasures put into force have been numerous and perhaps slightly embarrassing at first to shipping merchants and others, as most new measures are; but a little consideration will show that greater strictness in the control of cargoes has now become a necessity and that all steps taken against smuggling must be of benefit in the end to legitimate trade and to legitimate traders. A few of such of these measures as have been published may be listed in outline here the new regulations prohibiting steam and motor vessels of less than 100 register tons froin trading directly between China and abroad; the new regulations governing the entry of vessels and presentation of manifests; the new regulations for the control of sea-going junks; the levying of tonnage dues on deck cargoes, the abolition of the drawback system on foreign imports; the granting of increased bonding facilities; the new regulations for the control of Customs brokers; and the decision by the Government to claim a 12-marine-mile limit as territorial sea for preventive purposes, Under this summary of the fiscal events of the year, mention should be made also of the Customs gold unit notes introduced during the year. By authorising the acceptance of such notes, issued by the Central Bank of China, as legal tender for the payment of import duties and all charges payable in Customs gold units, the Government created a currency token that is to be accepted at all Custom Houses.