The Consul-General for Germiny some time back i-sued a request to the German Association of Shanghai to point out the principal subjects demanding attention in the coming treaty revision. Hereuyon the Committee of the Associarion of German Merchants in Shanghai requested individual members to hand in to it proposes for such changes as they might deem desirable which proposals, after examination by the Committee, have been embodied in a Memorandum which has been handed into the Imperial Consulate-General. We hava to thank our German contemporary, the "Ostasiatische Lloyd," for a list of the commercial changes advocated, of which we now give cur readers a translation.
1.—Revision of the Customs tariff ().—Ad valorem duties shall, where possible, be replaced by specific duties, The former of these have led to much
and the Customs' authorities. 'The chief uvplossuntvess between German importers nvsiness in articles subject to the ad valorem duty of five per cent is in German hands, The Chinese Customs' authorities ate often not sure themselves of the basis upon which ai valorem duties should be reckoned; whether on the selling price or invoice cost. 'The treaties stipulate simply that duty. shall be paid upon the market value, Goods not already sold are submitted for valuation to the subordinate Customs' officers; but these are rarely able to determine the real value and cases have occurred where goods have been appraised at three or four times their real value, notwithstanding the production of original invoices. Inthe case of s disagreement occurring in goods sold to arrive," the Customs demand to inspect the seller's sale-books, an unworthy procedure to which the merchant often submits rather than expose himself to greater trouble arid loss,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.