With reference to the inauguration of the Stamp Tax the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai has addressed the following telegram to the Chambe-s of Commerce of Kiangsu Province Let it be known to all Chambers that in the first year of the Republic the Senate resolved to ask the Executive to publish on December 21 of the Fourth Year of the Republic, that upon the transference of all movable goods (money or merchandise) at a standard value of above $10, a stauip tax should be attached to documents thereanent.
According to the Provisional Constitution, the people are obliged to pay legal taxes. But the people cannot acknowledge the violations of the law by recognizing any act of taxation which has not been authorized by legal procedure. That taxation is a heavy burden and unreasonable trouble to the people is not the fundamental question. For all illegal acts must have such consequences.
At a formal meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in December, we resolved that the stamp tax can only be paid according to the Act. published by the Government October of the first year of the Republic. Therefore. any alteration or revision by order of the Governiient without passing through the legal procedure should be opposed by the people for the sake of maintaining the dignity of the Provisional Constitution. Besides petitioning the Government to respect the law and to act according to the Stamp Tax law published during the first year of the Republic, we hereby telegraph you and hope that you will notify the merchants and the citizens to adhere strictly to their duty of paying the tax according to the pri ons of the Provisional Constitution and to maintain the law and uphold the ideals of the whole people. By so doing the spirit of government by law may one day be realized.
Hoping earnestly that you will do what we resolved, Conference of Chambers of Commerce of Kiangsu Province.
(Sgd.) F. C. Tone, Chairman of the Committee on Stamp Tax.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.