Wuen writing the other day on the Wuchang case we pointed out that a late Consul in Hankow had given away the right which one of his predecessors had maintained, that that city was part of Hankow. It appears from the recently published Consular report on the trade of Kiungchow that the Chinese authorities have for some years past been trying to get a similar surrender of treaty rights at that port, Mr. Consul Johnson says that the Chinese have been endeavouring to levy a tax on sugar at Kiungchow, where the market is, on the ground that that city is not an open port, as Hoihow, which is only three amiles distant, is. Mr. Johnson says that it seems impossible to imagine how anything can be clearer than the XIth Article of the 'I'reaty, under which British subjects are permitted to trade at the city and port of Kiungchow, but nevertheless the " Governor-General upholds the position takow up by the local authorities, declaring that it is only the port of the city of Kiungchow, viz, Hoihow, that is open to foreign trade, and that Kiungchow itself is in "the interior." The Chinese text, on which he argues here, is not quite so clear as the English, the word "and" between cities and ports being untranslated, and it is quite true that in the Russian and French Treaties to which the Governor-General refers, "ports" is the only word used, " cities" being left out. Mr. Grosvenor, when Charyé @ Affaires, distinctly upheld our right of trading at Kiungchow, but, as a directly opposite position is upheld by the Governor-General, the matter is held to be still in abeyance, and under the consideration of the high authorities in Peking. The amount sought to be levied is at present trif_ing, amounting to only 3 per cent., but, if the right to levy it were once admitted, it might be raised considerably, and probably would be, to the end that foreigners, not being able to compete with natives in " arranging" matters with the fiscal authorities, would be driven out of the trade, Hitherto foreigners, as said before, have worked this trade without paying more than the ordinary Customs' duty, but there are signs that the authorities intend to take o fx stand, and prevent their
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.