File No. 893.773/22.
[Inclosure.]
Consul Pontius to
Chargé MacMurray.
No. 28.]
American Consulate,
Newchwang,
October 3, 1914.
Sir: Referring to my No. 21, dated July
21, 1914,1 reporting
concerning the reduction instituted by the South Manchuria Railway
covering specific through shipments from Japan over its railways to
interior points in Manchuria, I have the honor to transmit herewith
information regarding new developments which have occurred in this
regard.
The protests of the Japanese merchants in Dairen and Newchwang
concerning the discrimination accorded import cargo from Japan other
than that shipped via the Korea-Antung railway route, was productive
of beneficial result so far as they were concerned. Early in August
last it was unofficially announced that the Japanese Government had
in mind the introduction of a new scheme to replace the existing
reduced rates arrangement before the end of the present year, and
that the new system would be found satisfactory by both the Japanese
and foreign merchants in South Manchuria. The new system as now
instituted seemingly constitutes as much as ever a discrimination
against the port of Newchwang and its foreign merchants who are
still precluded from enjoying the reduced railway rates on foreign
importations from Shanghai by the regular steamship lines.
[Page 599]
In the official gazette of the South Manchuria Railway, issue of the
4th ultimo, a new schedule of rates covering specific through
imports from Japan via Newchwang was published. The figures agree in
the main with the reduction applied to goods shipped via Antung or
Dairen, but as none of the foreign merchants in Newchwang purchase
their wares in Japan the reduction in the rates was of no benefit to
them. The proposed introduction of a 15% reduction in rates for
specific goods from Japan for transportation from Newchwang to
interior points was also sanctioned, and it is now announced that
the new rates will be effective from the 1st instant.
In the issue of the 30th ultimo of the Manchuria Daily News of
Dairen, a semi-official organ fostered by the South Manchuria
Railway, the announcement is made that the 30% reduction extended to
through shipments of imports via the ports of Antung, Dairen and
Newchwang has been made applicable also to through import shipments
by the Nippon Yusen Kaisha steamers from Tientsin, Bombay, the
United States, Australia and Europe. The Dairen merchants are to
benefit also in the additional inclusion of the steamers of the
South Manchuria Railway Dairen-Shanghai run in the above
category.
The so-called impartial system of reduced rates which the Tokyo
Government Railways Board recently intimated would be uniformly
extended to the Japanese and foreign merchants in South Manchuria,
is now apparently revealed as a discrimination in favor of Japanese
shipping. While it is true that the Newchwang foreign merchant may
avail himself of the 30% reduction by importing his cotton goods
from the United States or Europe in Japanese steamers, still there
is little likelihood under existing circumstances of his doing so.
Shanghai will always be considered the entrepôt of foreign
importations to China, at least so far as the local foreign and most
of the Chinese merchants are concerned, and until the existing
railway-rate reduction as now instituted includes foreign imports,
however or from wherever shipped, the action of the Japanese
Government in the present instance must be considered as a distinct
departure from the equal opportunity principle so clearly expressed
by it as regards Manchuria.
The complaint of the foreign chambers of commerce at Shanghai, Dairen
and Newchwang in this connection was originally based on the fear
that the preferential rates would be extended solely to goods of
Japanese manufacture, and it remains to be seen with what attitude
these commercial bodies will view the present system now apparently
in force.
I have [etc.]
