We are glad to learn from the Renter's telegram that we publish this morning that our Government will insist on the Chinese Government revising the regulations for the navigation of Chinese inland waters in a satisfactory sense, The regulations that we published on Wednesday are obviously only a very incomplete sketch. In the first place we find that it is only the inland waters of the Treaty port provinces that are opened; so that the Tungting Lake, one of the largest of the inland waters of China, and one on which there is a large traffic, is excluded. The Registration regulations are simple enough, but when we come to the Revenue section, we are quite at a loss to understand what the regulations mean. "argo shipped at Treaty ports is to be reported to the Customs and is to pay such duties as the Customs decide to be leviable." But will not. the tariff duty and half-duty clear the cargo to any part of China? How are the Castoms authorised to fix the duties? Then we find that "cargo landed or shipped inland is to pay at the place of landing or shipment whatever dues or duties the local regulations call for." We have been fighting for years against these local impositions, and it is impossible that our Government can officially recognise them like this. However, as they are to be revised in a satisfactory sense there is no use in discussing them at length, and indeed no argu: ment is required to show. that they are quite impracticable as they stand,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.