It follows, quite reasonably, that if Canton is permitted to levy extra duty on foreign goods without either endorsement or protest from the Powers, all the other local ae facto governments or governors can do the same. As things go in China, when such things are let slide, we could expect within six months to sce foreign commerce everywhere burdened with all the taxation it would stand, if not a little there. The Chinese people for whom we profess friendship, would be bearing the burden as usual while the proceeds would in~ evitably be devoted to better and bigger wars—a brighter China for the rapacious militarist and his raf. tian hordes.
In fact all the arguments that were brought against tariff aut nomy as envisaged during the happily defunct Tariff Conference can be brought against the super-customs tax at Canton, and many besides. If the collection of the. tax is silently agreed to by the Powers, we not only have the beginning of tariff autonomy, but we have it without the negotiations which might have safeguarded the foreign trader and the Chinese nation against its abuse; we have it in defiance of the treaties from an unrecognized and irresponsible regime and we have it at a time when we ought to be withholding money from China'g exploiters wherever could instead of endorsing further exploitation. 2 The Unsecured Debis Further than this the imposition of heavy local burdens upon foreign trade, with all proceeds of the increased taxes going into local trea-sunes and being spent without me ternational check of any sort, will mean that no portion of these reve-rines will be devoted to the liquidation of China's unsecured debts, to the re-establishment of her international credit. Local taxes, imposed in the majority of cases by the sort of folk who collect all China's domestic taxes, will constitute such a burden upon commerce that it will be impossible to increase the Customs tariff collected by the recognized administration. The idea of: implementing the Washington treaty to provide fands to serve the unsecured Toans or some portion them, would have to be abandoned because such increases would only kill trade und reduce the revenues.
Apart from all this. the precedent of a serious and conspicuous treaty solation in a country as chaotic and undisciplined as China now is, is an exceedingly dangerous' one, and no plea of expediency can be gracefully brought to its support, If one local ide facto Government in China~ can break a treaty by setting up its own local customs collectorate, it is bhard to see why another could not, on its own initiative, ban Christ-and confiscate mission and church property, or another abolish extraterritoriality and announce, as Canton has announced the imposi tion of this tax, that foreigners hheneeforth would be subject arrest, detention and—punishment according to the law, whim or fancy lof the local authorities.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.