A circular was issued to all public bodies and mercantile guilds by the Chinese Merchants' Association of Shanghai on February 22, strongly protesting against the alteration of the tax tariff of the native customs, thereby increasing the duties on native goods manyfold.
It begins by pointing out the cir-order issued by the Ministry of Finance, _authoriz~ ing all native customs alter their tariff regulations which were framed during the Ching ré- gime so as to raise the rate of duties to one-half that levied by the Maritime Customs. The Ministry, it says, bases its decision upon the difference between the prices then ruling and those at present current; and it further orders that any rate in the old tariff below one-half that of the Maritime Customs shall be raised accordingly while any rate in the old tariff higher than one-half that of the Maritime Customs, shall continue in force as of old. The date for the revised tariff tq come
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.