Office of the Historian

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.,

W. W. Rockhill.
[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.
  1. Not printed.↩