Now I think, gentlemen, that if you will impartially consider the Treaty that before you, you will find that most of Bbeee questions have been dealt with to the distinct advancement of our trade, although one commentator upon the Treaty has made what I consider the ungenerous criticism that the securing of these reforms can hardly make apy vital difference to the trade as a whole. Full Tight of inland residence has not been secured, but the Inland Navigation Rules allow of inland residence and inland trading to an extent which will probably be found sufficient for all legitimate purposes; nor has the right of free export of grain been obtained, but an amelioration of the present conditions attaching to rice shipments has been secured which it is believed is welcomed by those interested in the trade; on the question of the importation of foreign salt, I admit that the Commission entirely failed, the closeness of the monopoly in this trade, and the immense strength and complications of the vested interests concerned, proving too strong for the Commission's ropre~ sentations on a matter which, after all, is perhaps not of the highest importance. Nor is the question of Mixed Court administration mentioned in the Treaty, it being found impossible to apply in Treaty form fixed rules for the administration of Mixed Court procedure which must necessarily vary at different ports according to local conditions; the matter was not, however, overlooked by the Commission (as was contemptuously suggested by one of the evening papers) but was most carefully gone into with those most capable of giving useful opinion, with the result of the new set of Mixed Court Rules which have been recently published. Nor was it found possible to formulate hard and fast' Mining Rules in Treaty form, but much work was nevertheless dono by the Commission in drafting rules to form a basis of regulations which: the Chinese Government has undertaken shall be definitely formulated within a year of the signing of the Treaty.
You will observe, gentlemen, that noither in the conditions put forward by London in connection with the offer of a 10 per cent import tariff, nor in the suggestions put forward by Shanghai, was any mention whatever made of any interference with likin as applied to native trade, nor was there any question of interference with the right of China to tax lier domestic trade as she pleased; the idea was by that the granting of a 10 per cent import duty, 2} per cent of which was to be specially earmarked for provineial purposes, the good-will of the provincial authorities might be enlisted, and protection for what. constituted foreign trade secured. But as time went on the conclusion was driven in on the minds of those who had given more particular study to the subject, that as long as the likin barriers existed so long would likin continue to be levied, whether on foreign or native trade, despite any treaty stipulations to the contrary. Two stecessive Consuls-General of Shanghai, Mr. Jamieson and Mr. Brenan, expressed themselves strongly in this direction, and in a letter prepared in May of last year by this Committee of the Association for the information of H.M.'s Minister at Peking, the opinion was expressed that "gs long as_the likin system continues, with its endless obstructive barriers and corrupt practices" it was perfectly certain that there was no possibility of arriving at a workable tariff for inland trade. In consequence of these and other representations the British Government was mored to include in its instructions to the Commission that every effort be made to abolish the whole system of likin, lock, stock and barrel.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.