Business at Weihsien is responding but slowly to the better facilities offered by the German railway, "The main bulk of in ported goods still comes from Chefvo iit greater freight charges than would be incurred by. rail from Tsingtao. The reasons for this are more or less con plicated, but the main one lies in_ the attitude Tsingtao sustains to the Chinese Customs. To criticise China for maintain. ing " Customs House in Tsingtao, and attribute the lack of interior trade to that as a cause, isto bath up the wrong tree, Were the Chinese Customs withdrawn to Kiaochou, the result would still be the sume. The real trouble lies in the fact that Germany has handicapped herself by making Tsingtwo a free port and by thus placing the Customs between her merehiuts and the consumers of foreign g-ods. The Chinese cannot be blamed for collecting duties at their boundaries, and it would be preposterous to expect China to remove her Customs service from the German hinterland.
Whether the Chinese Customs be actually at Tsingtao or in the interior is immaterial. We repeat that in either case the same el stade exists, to wit, that the barrier is between the "'tsingtao merchant and his! would-be Chinese customer beyond the German boundary. Now if there is one thing that frightens a Chinese, it is to have tu encounter a Customs' barrier. It is bred into him that he will certainly come to grief by so doing. The fear of the Uikin barriers on the Grand Canal has for years driven the trade of southern tung around by Chefoo and Weilsie You may laugh at the Chinese merchant's fears, and prove to him that he can pay the tiff imposed and yet save money, but he prefers to buy at te market where he is unmolested by the bugbear "Customs." Even the foreign resident of the interior feels the inconvenience entailed by the present arrangement at Tsingtxo. "Every dollar's worth of goods he ruys at hat port must. pass the inspec tion of the Customs before he can board the train for his destination in Cainese territory.
Chefoo and Tsingtao Compared.
At Chefvo he may buy much or little, and leave when he places without this sword of Damocles having over him. A cargo entering Chefoo harbour will pass the Customs in bulk at a single transaction, At 'Tsingtao the same cargo will be distributed a thousand customers in the interior, and each one of these must pass his quo' of the original invoice through the Custom: Imagine the thrice trebled hubbuly this makes for the Customs stut, which is already larger at Tsingtao than at Chefoo, with a vastly smaller amount of trade'} What an army of clerks would have to be maintained were the trade as great as at Chefoo! The situation is abnormal and will become more and more impossible. The ternery occupied by Germany is very Timited, comprising perhaps three hundred villages of mountaineers, fishermen, and small farmers. What are these as compwed to the thirty millions of Shantung, whom Germany hopes to supply with foreign goods, and whose exports she expects to handle? Tt is of Be token to make the ingxgss-amd egress as primary importance that every precaution
easy as possible.
The Practical Solution of this problem would he for Germany to control the Customs at Tsingtao on a like Dasis with other China ports, and collect duties upon discharge of cargo. She could then demand of Peking that the hinterland be free from further Customs barriers, and. in view of this concession share with China the nett profits of the Tsingtao Customs Bureau. Such a sug-stion would be received with derision at Berlin, but we maintain that some such rangement wou'd give an impetus to Shantung trade, and to the new port Tsingtao, that will be a long time coming under present conditions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.