|August 5, 1899.]
The following letter appears in the N. C. Daily News.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
strawbraid, coal and fron, etc., in fact all that the hinterland (in the widest sense of Sir-In the opening line of your leader of the word) produces, and future railways may the 11th inst, (July) hended "The Custom- be able to profitable carry; comes in free. house at Tsintaa, you put the question "What Furthermore, merchants importing native goods is a free port P' and referring to Hongkong and from natives ports can secure half-duty treat Bingapore as examples you come to the comment for them when sent inland, or free re- olusion that because s Custom-house functions export to another Chinese port, by bringing here this is not a free port and is likely to them to the Custom-honse on arrival. prove a failure:
There are different kinds of free ports in different parts of the world, the arrangements of which differ widely according to local cir- cumstances and the interests involved. If a free port to which all nationalities alike have free socess, and where goods enjoy the greatest possible freedom from taxation, I maintain that Teintau is as free as Hongkong or Singapore, if not more so. It is a mere question of figures
which I shall prove further on:
You rightly refer to the wise forethought of the German Emperor to whom the country ower the possession of Kinochon, and in making |
* free port you “suppose that it was the success and prosperity of Hongkong and Sing- spare that appealed to the intelligence of the Emperor; and that he saw that to make his new colony at Tsintau a similar success, there shonld be no Custom-house there." In this supposition you are wrong, for it was the Home Government—no Minister or official out here that decided that the Custom-house should be st Tsintan, and for very good reasons.
From the very beginning the German Gov- ernment realised the great difference between ports like Hongkong and Singapore, and Taintau. The one a magnificent natural harbour at the mouth of one of China's great rivers controlling the commerce of South China, and on the grand ocean highway controlling the commerce of two hemispheres; the other a small fishing port with a bad anchorage, with no river useful for water carriage, at the mouth of a large bay of which one half is a mud flat, and above all situated in an out-of-the-way corner of the mainland far away from any ocean highway!
Hongkong has become the great success it is, so to speak, of itself and without any grandly preconceived plan on which its prosperity has been built up. The thanks of the British nation are dne chiefy to the man who selected it—not|| so much to its legislators (many of whom were no doubt capable and excellent men), nor to the absence of a Customs house. Its natural position made it a success..
Here the problem to be solved was very dif- ferent. Here it meant. How bring trade P How draw commerce to Tsintau ? the out-of-the way fishing village with no trade routes or even portal connection inland, away alike from high roads and sea routes. Wisely the German Govern ment after careful investigation and considera. tion of these faots, and in virtue of Article V. of the Treaty of the 6th of march in which it had engaged to arrange for the collection of Cus- toms duties "in a manner which will safeguard all the interests of China," elected-rather than establish Customs barriers inland and thereby still further separating it from the hinterland-to have a Custom-house at Tsip. tan managed by Germans and therefore, so to speak, under its own supervision and on its own
terms.
What are these terms, what advantages does this arrangement secure, and what disadvanta- ges of obligations does it involve for the Colony ?
The terms are that there shall be no customs Irontier between the German Pachtgebiet and the hinterland; that there shall be a German
moered Custom-house
-hopse at Tsintan; that goods Intended for the hinterland shall pay duty at Trintau and that goods from the hinterland shall come in free without hindrance, and shall pay duty only when shipped away. The ad
antages of this arrangement are obvious; by placing the Custom-house at Tsintau trade is is centralised there, and by baving no Custom house at the frontier the inhabitants of the German Pachtgebiet Chinese and Non-Chinese present numbering about 100,000 and in to come perhaps a million secure duty. supplies of every kind of description, of their necessition atsoever for their own
for their
for their industries produced, silk and
+-
it'a
her, injuries cannot be ascertained
She was four days Kornilou Bảy, despite the vessels of the squadron to mament, stores, de., were the vessel had to be conside the w pleased from her She was temporarily then proceeded convoyed by the Orlando, this morning.
In other words, the arrangement secures for Teintau both free import by sea and free im- port by land ;combining all the real advantages The N. C. Daily New of a free port with those of a Treaty Port. letter from Nagasaki, These facts translated into figures mean a venture is likely to be saving to everybody in the Colony, and advant
undergoing tempora ages to that extent over the inhabitants of to Hongkong where Hongkong to the extent of 5 per cent on all or four months being dutiable goods whatsoever from the hinterlands probable cost of £8,000 and consumed in the Colony, and of 23 per cent that she expects to come to Sha duty on all native produce from Chinese ports needless to say that this is the landed at T'aintan for export to the hinterland. to which the midshipmen on
The obligation involved is the control of the forward most eagerly, shipment of export cargo, which eventually, when the new docks now in progress are ready, it is proposed to transfer to docks and godowns, A further control of the shipping is neces sitated, here as in Hongkong, by the Opinm Ordinance, the execution of which the Govern ment has entrusted likewise to its German- Chinese Custom-house. I leave it to your own sense of fairness to decide-if you will take the trouble to read the very sensible arrangements sketched out in the Opium Ordinance—which is the lesser evil, the native opium farmer's Police force as in Hongkong or the European-officered Customs service as here.
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These are the broad fauts. The arrangement is novel, no doubt, and its success is largely depending upon the continuation on both sides that fair-mindedness and honesty of purpose which has characterised the whole proceedings. As to who has got the vest of the bargain, Ger- many or China, I leave every reader to decide for himself.—I am, etc,
Tsintau. 16th July.
TSINTAU.
In the same issue of the N. C. Daily News as that in which the above appears there is also a news letter from Tsintan in which the following occurs:-
There is a leading article in our weekly gazette of the 21st July "The Custom-house at Tsintan" in answer to your article of the 11th. It is written by the hand of an official and not by a merchant, every intelligent mer- chant being of only one opinion-the Custom house at Tsintau is not a success but merely a disadvantage for our place, its location should be on the frontier, not here. If we wish to have a similar saccess to that of Hongkong, Tsintau must become an entirely free port. The future will prove this very soon, I hope.
THE STRANDING OF THE BONAVENTURE.
A private letter from an officer in the firet with Admiral Seymour, which has been kindly put at our (N. C. Daily News) disposal, says :---
Vladivostock, 8th July.
*
the fourth ship of the line. When we got just We were going into Korniloff, and she was inside the entrance, the Bonaventure was or- dered to haul out of the line and come up abreast of the flagship. She increased speed to 12 knots to pass us, when just as she got abreast, she stopped dead, her stern down, and there she was stuck fast with a rook through her bottom. The Aurora and Undaunted have been trying to tow her off for the last three days, but have got no forwarder. It's very bad luck on them, as
everything is in an awful state on board, the sip full of working parties from the fleet working day and night, hoisting out guns, ammunition, boats, etc., and throwing coal overboard."
The Nagasaki Express of the 24th July says: -H,M.8:8: Orlando and Bonaventure arrived here early this morning from Korniloff Bay, where the latter vessel had been ashore on the rocks. The injuries sustained are not of a ser
ons nature, and the vessel will be repaired in the local dock.
The same paper in its issue of the 25th says: Owing to the pressure of business at the local dookyarda, H.M.S. Bonaventure will not be able to dock until next Saturday, and the extent of
THE “WOODLARK'8" VOYAGE, The Hankow correspondent of the N. C. Daily News writes:
The most interesting event here of late been the return of the Woodlark from a threes weeks' tour on the rivers of Hunan. Some 1 years ago, when Consul Gardner pro ing the Esk into Hunan, there rumpus. H.E. Chang Chih-tang, ma and earth to prevent it. He was sure pearance of a foreign ship on the Huns would be the signal for rebellion, the opening of the flood-gates of generally. Of course, no-one here beli but they did in London, so when all for a start, the telegrams came pelting stop the expedition, stopped it was. Int way, when it was intimated that the W was going to Hunan, His Excellency took fright and did his best to scare them out of the pro- ject; but this time the same success did not st he had to say, but sent the gunboat all tend his effort; our naval authority heard
same, with the result that the Woodlark able to go wherever they had a mit without meeting with the least unpleasanto stay where they pleased, and some safeli
When they reached Yoch any where. entrance of the Tungting Lake, the authorities kindly provided them with of a dozen braves in a sampan-as the guard-boats here are called. The was tied to the stern of the Woodlark, and proved sufficient protection from. enamies till she was safely out of tho pro- vince again, Solomon to the contrary, surely something new under the sun a British gunboat under the wing o
of sampan, but it was a good idea all the Neither party wanted any trouble and pan was the best way of conveying the the people that they were to behave the The Woodlark first went up the Changsha, the capital, then turned worked round the lake to Changtefu. the cities they came to they stopped them, and after a good look at t the officials on shore, and receive
rivers flowing into tho Tungting again to Hankow with no adventures
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FOREIGN ENTERPRISE.
BRITISH STAGNATION AT- HANKOW.
The Hankow correspondent of the N. G. Hasly News writes:-
There is nothing much doing on the British Concession, but on the French the buildio are going up at an astonishing, Russian Concession has now b allotted, and we shall soon, se there also. The railway peo their metals almost immedia have trains running nor Whatever enterprises ther all to be in non-British rapidly ceasing to be a Bri out of every three groups of has only to walk along the bund will be talking Fingli Which
nguage heard. However
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