In order to give a touch sketch of the course of the Conference, the following taels must be kept in view, and may possibly be of some unco in understanding the principles on which the Conference has been based, The final object of the Chinese if to attain "tariff auto amy," er, ax may be put more clearly, the right to impose their national tariff law simultaneously with the abolition of likin, 'The stages leading to this are three. First, the imposition of the surtaxes arranged for 'Washington: at recond, larger surtaxes: interim and, thirdly, imposition of the tional tariff' law, To take the interim surtaxes "first of all. The general arrangements that are being made in negotiation with the Chinese are to increase import doties to. such an extent as will enable China to meet, or at any rate to yo some way to meet, two very important objects which' they have in mind. The first of these objects is their real anxiety and very real belief that some arrangement cane made for the abolition of internal taxes on trade, which they realize just as clearly a: we do—or at any rate the more enlightened of them—make trade so extremely difficult in the interior that China is prevented from developing her great natural rasurees as che should do. Secondly, to enable her make some arrangement to ecnsolidate her unsecured or inadelined to be put into effect will naturally take some time, so that while these negotiations are course of progress it not only of the Chinese Government but of the various negotiating parties to put the Washington surtaxes into operation with the idea of leading up to the major treaty. Finally, as a last measure, China will get her opportunity to put her national tariff law into operation, Course of the Tariffs Asked with reference to the effect that decisions which might be come to by the Conference would have on British trade, Mr, Stewart said The actual course of the tariff is likely to be that for a period the surtaxes which were arranged at Washington of 5 per cent. on a proportion of the imports and 24 per cent, on others will come into force first of all. No actual arrangements so far as I know have been made, as when I left Peking no steps had been taken in regard to the establishment of a recognized Chinese Government. At that period the whole matter was under discussion, and we were awaiting the opportunity yo negotiate with the Chinese as soon as they were prepared to meet us. So far as what are known as the interim surtaxes, at the time when the Chinese Government broke up we were in close negotiation as to the goods which could stand the increase of duty which had been proposed as likely to produce the necessary revenue without doing serious damage to trade. Proposals and count proposals had been made, but no conclusion has yet been reached, and judging from what one could see, the position when I left Peking stood as follows: that whereas the foreign delegates were perfectly ready at any time to meet the Chines delegates for that discussion, the Chinese delegates owing to their political dieuities were not ready or Us.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.