File No. 551/51–52.
Minister Rockhill
to the Secretary of State
.
American Legation,
Peking
,
June 4,
1907
.
No. 633.]
Sir: In continuation of my No. 627,a of May 30, I have now the honor
to transmit herewith copies of the agreement signed on that date by the
Japanese minister and the inspector-general of imperial [Page 133] maritime customs, together with its
two annexes, providing (1) for the establishment of a maritime customs
office at Dairen and (2) inland waters steam navigation rules for Dairen
and the leased territory in the Liaotung Peninsula. The first annex is
very nearly identical with the agreement signed by the German minister
and the inspector-general of customs on April 17., 1899, for the leased
territory of Kiaochau; it is to be revised in the spring of 1908, when
local conditions and needs are more fully ascertained. The second is for
paragraphs 1, 2, 3, and 4, the same as the German agreement for Kiaochau
signed April 7, 1904; paragraph 5 is slightly modified; and paragraphs 6
and 7 are not found in the German agreement.
The substance of the above information was transmitted to you to-day in a
telegram, which read as follows:
Provisional customs arrangement for Dairen signed May 30 nearly
identical German agreement April 17, 1899. Japanese minister
says it will probably go into effect July 1. Revision next
spring is provided for.
Rockhill.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Agreement concerning the establishment of a
maritime customs office at Dairen and inland water steam
navigation.
The Governments of Japan and China having agreed to the establishment
of an office of the Chinese imperial maritime customs at Dairen, the
undersigned, duly authorized by their respective Governments, hereby
agree to accept for the general guidance of that office, and as a
preliminary and provisional measure, the detailed understanding set
forth in the documents hereto attached, viz:
- A.
- Agreement about the establishment of a maritime customs
office at Dairen; and
- B.
- Inland waters steam navigation.
And it is further agreed that in the spring of next year, after the
experience of one season, there shall be a reconsideration of the
present arrangement in order to fuller accord with local conditions
and needs, and that for the documents now accepted there shall be
substituted a revised agreement, supplemented by an ordinance, the
former to be prepared by the Japanese minister and the
inspector-general of customs, and the latter by the Japanese
authorities of the leased territory in communication with the
commissioner of customs at Dairen. And it is further understood that
the Japanese authorities will take steps to prevent smuggling from
the leased territory into China and support the Chinese authorities
in the measures they take to prevent smuggling from China into the
leased territory, and also that a suitable procedure shall be
arranged for dealing with railway traffic at the Dairen terminus and
the frontier station (Wa Fang Tien or other) and temporary
regulations made for collection of duties by the customs.
G. Hayashi,
Minister of Japan
.
[seal.]
Robert
Hart,
Inspector-General of
Customs
. [
seal.]
Signed and sealed at
Peking
the 30th May,
1907.
[Subinclosure A.]
Agreement about the establishment of a maritime
customs office at Dairen.
- 1.
- The commissioner or the chief of the maritime customs office
at Dairen is to be of Japanese nationality. The
inspector-general of customs will come to [Page 134] an understanding with the
Japanese legation at Peking in case of appointing a new
commissioner.
- 2.
- The members of the staff of the maritime customs office at
Dairen shall, as a rule, be of Japanese nationality; in case,
however, of a suddenly occurring vacancy or of temporary
requirements of the service members of other nationalities may
be provisionally sent to Dairen.
- 3.
- The inspector-general of maritime customs will inform the
governor-general of the leased territory beforehand about the
change of the commissioner of customs at Dairen.
- 4.
- All correspondence between the customs office at Dairen and
the Japanese authorities and Japanese merchants shall be
conducted in the Japanese language. Should, however, merchants
of other nationality come to reside at Dairen, they shall be at
liberty to correspond in English or Chinese.
- 5.
- On merchandise brought by sea to Dairen no import duty shall
be levied. Import duty, according to existing treaties, shall be
levied by the maritime customs office on all merchandise or
products passing the Japanese frontier of the leased territory
into the interior of China. The Japanese authorities agree to
assist, as far as it is possible, in the prevention of
merchandise passing the Japanese frontier when not provided with
a permit or pass by the maritime customs office.
- 6.
- When Chinese merchandise or products brought from the interior
of China into the Japanese leased territory are shipped from
Dairen to other places they will pay the export duty according
to existing treaties. Produce raised in and merchandise
manufactured from the produce raised in or imported by sea into
the Japanese leased territory shall pay no export duty. The duty
to be paid by articles manufactured in the Japanese leased
territory from materials brought there from the interior of
China will be the same as at present paid by articles in similar
circumstances in the German leased territory at Kiaochow.
- 7.
- Chinese merchandise or products brought from Chinese ports to
Dairen shall pay no duty as long as they remain inside Japanese
territory; but if these Chinese merchandise or products pass the
Japanese frontier into the interior of China they shall pay
according to existing treaties.
- 8.
- Chinese merchandise shipped from Dairen and having paid,
accordingly, export duty shall be provided with a receipt, on
the producing of which it shall pay, on being landed at a
Chinese treaty port, a coast-trade duty according to existing
treaties.
- 9.
- For Japanese and other non-Chinese merchandise, on being
shipped to Dairen from a Chinese treaty port, the import duty
paid at the latter port shall be refunded by drawback, according
to treaty stipulations. On being imported to Dairen, such
merchandise shall pay no duty so long as it does not pass the
Japanese frontier into the interior of China. On being
reexported from Dairen to other places outside China, such
merchandise shall pay no export duty.
- 10.
- Chinese merchandise or products having been shipped from a
Chinese treaty port to Dairen and reshipped from there to places
outside China shall on this occasion pay no export duty in case
that documentary evidence is produced of their having paid
export duty at the treaty port from which they came.
- 11.
- The maritime customs office at Dairen shall take no part in
the collection or administration of tonnage dues, light-house
dues, or port dues.
- 12.
- The customs tariff in vigor in the Chinese treaty ports shall
be applied likewise by the maritime customs office at
Dairen.
- 13.
- The Japanese Government agrees to set apart for the maritime
customs office sufficient space at Dairen for building offices,
lodgings for the staff, with suitable rooms for garden, stable,
and servants’ quarters. The amount to be paid for the sale or
lease of such ground is to be settled locally by mutual
agreement.
- 14.
- The chief of the customs office and the members of the staff
shall be free from any obligation to act as jurors or assessors
or from any other personal services.
- 15.
- The aforesaid maritime customs office at Dairen shall be
charged likewise exclusively with the granting and issuing of
transit passes for merchandise going into the interior of China,
as well as for merchandise coming from the interior of China to
Dairen; and this office will be charged as well with all and
every function, right, or capacity which appertain in the treaty
ports to the so-called Chinese customs taotai.
- 16.
- For the transit passes mentioned in article 15, the duty
according to existing treaties—i. e., half of the amount of the
export or import duties—shall be collected by the maritime
customs office at Dairen.
- 17.
- The procedure to be observed in case of frauds or
contraventions committed by merchants against the maritime
customs rules shall be settled here-after by separate agreement,
but it is understood in principle that all judicial procedure
rests with the Japanese tribunals.
- 18.
- In view of the possibility that with the development of
commercial activity in the Japanese leased territory new
requirements may arise which are not to be foreseen, it is
understood that the present agreement bears a provisional
characters, and that both parties to it agree to introduce
amendments as soon as required for the purpose of remedying
inconveniences which may arise in the practical execution of
this agreement.
(Signed and sealed)
G.
Hayashi,
Minister of
Japan
.
(Signed and sealed)
Robert Hart,
Inspector-General of Customs.
Signed and sealed at
Peking
the 30th May,
1907.
[Subinclosure B.]
Inland water steam navigation.
- 1.
- The Chinese maritime customs having been formally authorized
to function in Dairen, are now empowered to issue inland stream
navigation papers. Steamers thus permitted to ply on the inland
waters are to be guided generally by the rules and regulations
of July and September, 1898, and the additional rules of 1903,
but more especially by the regulations here below set
forth.
- 2.
- Steamers about to ply on the inland waters are required to
deposit their national papers, foreign or native, with the
customs, and will receive in exchange, on written application,
the inland-waters certificate; such certificates are valid for
one year, and a fee of 10 taels is payable on first issue and 2
taels for each annual renewal. Tonnage dues are payable once
every four months.
- 3.
- Such certificated steamers may ply according to regulations
(1) from Dairen to a place or places inland and back, and (2)
from Dairen to a place inland, thence to a treaty port, thence
to a place inland, and thence back to Dairen. On making due
report to the local customs or tax office and paying local dues
or duties they may land or ship cargo or passengers at any
recognized places of trade passed on the voyage, but they may
not ply between inland places exclusively without special
authority. If visiting another treaty port on any such inland
voyage the customs at such port are to be duly reported to and
all port regulations, national and native, complied with.
- 4.
- Whenever certificated steamers quit or return to Dairen they
are to clear from and report to the Dairen customs, handing in
outward and inward manifests of cargo, reporting places called
at or to be called at, and paying the pre scribed duties. Opium
and contraband goods are not to be carried inward or outward; if
carried the goods are confiscable and the vessel subject to a
fine of $500, a second offense entailing withdrawal of
inland-waters certificate and privileges.
- 5.
- The Japanese authorities will assist the Dairen customs to
suppress smuggling, more especially the smuggling of opium and
contraband.
- 6.
- The transmission of Chinese closed mails between Dairen and
inland ports shall be free of charge, and the postal
administrations concerned will arrange a fitting procedure for
the transmission of such Chinese closed mails through the
Japanese leased territory from and to Chinese post-offices
outside the territory.
- 7.
- The application of the inland waters steam navigation
understanding will be restricted to steamers which ply on inland
waters not inside the area of the Japanese leased
territory.
(Signed and sealed)
G.
Hayashi,
Minister of
Japan
.
(Signed and sealed)
Robert Hart,
Inspector-General of Customs.
Signed and sealed at
Peking
the 30th May,
1907.
