Customs Spokesman Refutes Japanese Allegations of High Tariffs: The True Picture Shanghai, June 17, 'The allegation repeatedly made Japanese officials and merchants that the smuggling rampant in North China is due' to unreasonably high Chinese tariff rates and to lack of zeal on the part of the Customs authorities in' enforcing—preventive measures is a sheer distortion of fads, said a spokesman of the Customs' authorities, yesterday, "The plain truth," he said, "is that this senndalous situation was precipitated by forcible interference with the Chinese Customs preventive service in discharging its Tegal duties, and it has nothing to do with the tariff. high' tariffs were the real cause of the smuggling, then the same conditions might be_ expected along the entire coast of China as now exist in East Hopel. Besides, granting for the sake of argument that certain import duties are too high, the situation should be rectified by negotiations and not forcibly by smuggling tacitly approved and openly connived at by tone of the Importing countries."
"Far from being a case of the Customs. preventive service lacking in zeal, the spokesman continued, the fact' is that the Japanese military authorities have balked at every turn China's efforts to stamp out the licit and have prevented the Chi-hose authorities interfering with the smugglers, both on Iand and on sea.
"shoddy Swindle"
The spokesman went on to quote an editorial In the London "Times" on May 18, which commented that the evasive answers of the Japanese authorities to diplomatic protests concerning the smuggling in North China
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.