To the Editor of the "Norrn-Carya Darcy News."
Sm,—The Commercial Treaty has been signed at last and the Text published, so perhaps the time is not inopportune to endeavour to reckon up the probable gain and loss—to all concerned when—if ever ~it comes to be ratified.
The ostensible parties to the Treaty are, of course, the Governments of Great Britain and China, but there are two others quite as much interested in it who have had little or no say in the matter, I mean the People of China and the British trader.
Let us see how each of these is likely to be affected.
a preliminary, however, it may be noted that this Treaty is unique amongst Treaties between really Sovereiga Powers, inasmuch a8 one of the contracting parties gives the other leave to tax that othe.'s own products consumed by its own people in its own country. In fact it is equivalent to China permitting England to charge excise on whisky made and consumed in Great Britain Now Articles I to VI, XIV, & XV are obviously for the good of all concerned, and some of them at least will certainly be put into force, but whether they are 80 or not can hardly make any vita difference to trade as a whole.
Article XT. no doubt all right but it is distinctly illogical, for why should India be perniuied to send her monopoly opium into the country if the private trader is prohibited from dealing in the same drug, in another form, but, practically, for the ame purpose?
Article XI!
Article XIII—Let us hope the Commission will have every success, but as, to do this, it will have to establish a modus vivendi between zealots and bigots, it ix hardly likely to complain of monotony. Anyway it reads quaintly in " ' Commercial" Treaty.
Articles IX & X—Tie point lies in the application, and that has still to be seen.
Article XVI—A wise precaution on the part of the British Commissioners.
This leaves Article VIII still to be considered, and as it is the Treaty, the rest be ing more or less in the nature ut © padding," it is appropriately the longest of them all, and it is well to deal with it last of all.
Now there are three and ely three rea'- ly vital things in this Articie—althoush there are others that will be cavilled at, collected from Hongkong junks trading Tresty Ports in the " Province of Canton,"
Whichever that may be amongst the 18 provinees.
Tt may be noted that Likin has always been illegal so far as foreign imports are concerned unless the shipper preferred it to a transit pass.
2ud.—In consideration of this foreign imports are to pay a surtax of one and a-half times a duty of 5 per cent, and Chinese exports to foreign countries a surtax of one-half a duty of 5 per cent.
Srd.—Chinese goods for Chinese consumption are to pay a "consumption tax," amount to be fixed under elastic conditions by the mandarins, Now let us try to divine how each these " Parties of the Ist, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th! part as aforementioned " is going to come Out of it all.
The British Government:-—Gets a definite fund or source of revenue on which to come down for the interest, etc., on the Indemnity due to itself and its friends. That such source of revenue is possibly provided at the expense of British trade troubles it not at all.
The Chinese Guvernment:—Is well satis fied. On a basis of last year's trade the surtax—without counting taxation on what has hitherto been duty free, and leaving out of consilerntion the mysterious excise on "prouiss ut foreign type turned out by million taels, and no one who can be conmaxchinery"—will bring in some twenty sidered an authority has asserted that the total of Likin from all sources officially recorded has ever exceeded from twenty to twenty-one million tael*, or that out of, this the Board of Revenue ever got more that sixteen. The difference between what was actually collected and what was officially recorded, of course, disappeared in the process of collection. Th is it went to support the army of Liki officials. In future that "um is to be collected comfortably and without friction by the Imperinl Maritime Customs und a "Consumption Tax" is to be levied to find employment and pay for the quondam Likin stuff.
The People "f China:—Well, the People of China don't come into this show at all! 'They are told at the outset with cynical—to say brutal—frankness, that whoever gains they wou'
That they will have to make up anything that is short out of their own poverty-stricken pockets. That, in a word, they merely exchange the Likin barrier on the creek for the excise office in every village, the Likin runner for the exciseman.
"And the last state of that man was worse than the first."
The British Trader:—Can_ sympathise with the Chinaman; his trade is visibly hampered by the increased duty, and whilst the is promised relief from Likia he is informed that a "Consumption Tax" on solely Chinese products is to be imposed. Former Treaties promised him relief from Likin under the transit system but lin defiance of Tresty did nevertheless manage to extend itself to his goods, and so he can figure out what the chances are against a similar extension of this "Consumption Tax" being made. He may further remember to include in his computation of probabilities the fact that whereas Likin was at least levied on the package, and at certain more or less defined spots, so that it was possible—if unpro. frable—to trace instances of exaction, the Consumption Tax will be levid the piece "nywhere and everywhere the in" the interior please, and it will therefore be manifestly inpos-1 sible to follow illegal exaction in any way. dst.—China agrees to abolish something called Likin, which is strictly speaking a This is not the first Treaty we have had with China, For the best part of a century we have been negotiating with her, and never yet has she carried out her Treaty promises or performed her Treaty obligations, if by fraud or force she could avoid them and it is not reasonable to ask us to believe she is ing to do so now, and we may safely conclude that every piece of cloth, every box of matches, every gallon of kerosene oil will be burdened by the surtax and pay every copper cash as much in illegal taxation as ever it did under the most oppressive application of Likin.
One is forced to the conclusion that this is a Treaty made for the relief and comfort of the respective Governments, but with little or no regard to the interests of the governed!
Lam, ete., 16th September.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.