File No. 893.512/72
Minister Reinsch to
the Secretary of State
No. 1251
American Legation,
Peking,
October 31, 1916.
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith
copies of despatches under dates of April 4 and September 21 last (Nos.
39 and 76, respectively) from the Consul at Changsha, in regard to the
collection of likin dues on foreign goods
entering the walled city of Changsha; also a copy of the Legation’s
instruction (No. 1924) of the 21st instant, on this subject.
It seems to the Legation that the Consul’s contention in this matter is
fully warranted by the Department’s instruction to the Consul at Nanking
(No. 7, of which a copy was enclosed with the Department’s instruction
No. 161 of September 30, 1914)49
under date of September 23, 1914, in the course of which it is stated
that
this Government has heretofore insisted that
when a city is opened to foreign residence and trade it is the
city and not an adjacent district that is open and that
therefore likin can not be collected on
goods carried from the landing or settlement into the city.
I have, however, the honor to request such specific instructions as the
Department may see fit to give upon consideration of this particular
case as presented in the despatches from Changsha which are herewith
enclosed, with a view to the eventuality of having to take up with the
Foreign Office a demand that it recognize and give effect to such a
construction of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of 1903 as would include the
walled city within the limitations of the Port of Changsha as open to
trade.
I have [etc.]
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[Inclosure 1]
Consul Johnson to
Minister Reinsch
No. 39
American Consular Service,
Changsha,
April 4, 1916.
Sir: I have the honor to report that some
days ago I received a complaint from the local manager of the Singer
Sewing Machine Company to the effect that the stations of the local
likin office located at the city gates of
Changsha were refusing to allow foreign imported goods to enter the
city gates without payment of likin. I
protested to the local Commissioner of Finance by telephone
requesting that orders be given permitting the goods to enter the
city without the payment of likin as Changsha
was an open port. I was unable to get any satisfaction, the answer
being that that part of Changsha which is located within the walls
was and always had been considered to be part of the interior of the
country (nei ti) as distinguished from the
commercial settlement under the treaties.
Now as a matter of fact the setting apart of a commercial settlement
at Changsha has never been definitely accomplished. The port was
opened in 1904 under the provisions of the Japanese Commercial
Treaty of 1903, Article X, which contains the following
provision:
The Chinese Government agree to open to foreign trade, within six
months from the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty,
Changsha-fu, in the Province of Hunan, on the same footing as the
ports already opened to foreign trade. Foreigners residing in this
open port are to observe the municipal and police regulations on the
same footing as Chinese residents, and they are not to be entitled
to establish a municipality and police of their own within the
limits of the treaty port, except with the consent of the Chinese
authorities.
I therefore wrote to the Commissioner of Finance for the Province of
Hunan the following letter of protest on March 28.
“Sir: I have the honor to request that
instructions be issued to the stations of the likin office located at the city gates of Changsha to
refrain from the collection of likin on
foreign merchandise imported into China which has paid the usual
duties prescribed by the treaties. It has come to my attention
that these stations have been in the habit of levying likin on goods of foreign origin which
have already paid the usual customs duties provided by the
treaties. This is illegal as the city of Changsha is an open
port within which likin may not be levied
on such goods.
“I am informed that the likin officer of
the Tai Hsi Men is now holding up a parcel of goods belonging to
the Singer Sewing Machine Company for payment of likin. I request that instructions be
issued to this likin station to release
this parcel of goods without delay.
“I have [etc.]”
I have not received a reply to this protest. On the other hand the
Singer Sewing Machine Company again had occasion to bring goods to
their stock in the city shortly after the above letter was sent.
These goods were held up at the city gate. As the firm was in urgent
need of the goods I told the manager that he should pay the likin and obtain a receipt for the money. I
asked him to toward me the receipt which he has done and I have this
day written another letter to the Commissioner for Finance
requesting that the money covered by the receipt be refunded to the
Singer Sewing Machine Company.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure 2]
Consul Johnson to
Minister Reinsch
No. 76
American Consular Service,
Changsha,
September 21, 1916.
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my
despatch of April 4 last on the above subject, No. 39, in which I
reported that I had filed a protest with the Commissioner of Finance
against the collection of likin by likin stations at the city gates
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of Changsha on foreign
goods passing into the walled city. At the time that I wrote this
despatch, the Commissioner of Finance had not made a ruling in this
matter other than to state over the telephone the contention that
the area within the city walls of Changsha formed part of what is
now known as the Chinese interior or “nei
ti.” On April 14, however, I received from the Commissioner of
Foreign Affairs a letter covering this matter and referring to a
communication which he had received from the provincial Commissioner
of Finance covering the whole question. I enclose copy of Chinese
text of this letter as well as a copy of translation of same for the
Legation’s information.4 The Legation will note that the sum and
substance of his contention in this matter is that the area within
the city walls of Changsha is part of the Chinese interior and that
it follows that goods taken into this area are liable to payment of
likin. He quotes from regulations which
he states were drawn up conjointly between the customs and the likin offices covering the procedure to be
followed in the collection of likin on
foreign goods imported into Changsha and states that Clause IV of
these regulations stipulates that
“goods brought by steamer shall be taken
from the steamer to the jetty and to the commercial port and
stored in the foreign godowns. Such goods shall be free
temporarily from the payment of likin. Later, when such goods are sold to Chinese
merchants and before they leave the commercial port and the
foreign godown the foreign firm and the merchant concerned
shall report the weight and number of packages, so that when
the goods leave the commercial port and come from the
foreign godown, the likin officers
may examine and collect the necessary amount of likin taxed. If the goods are taken
to native godowns or to shops where they may be sold, then
such goods must pay the likin
immediately as required by the regulations.”
In reply to this letter I wrote to the Commissioner of Foreign
Affairs on April 24, copy of which letter I enclose,4 denying the validity of
the regulations quoted by the Commissioner of Finance which had
apparently been drawn up without the consent or agreement of the
American Government, and again asking that instructions be issued
for the discontinuance of the collection of likin at the city gates of Changsha on foreign goods. I
also pointed out, as the Legation will note, that payment of this
charge in the past by the Singer Sewing Machine Co. could not be
considered to constitute a precedent in favor of its collection.
There was no further outcome of this matter. Likin continued to be assessed and during the summer the
Singer Sewing Machine Co. forwarded to me receipts issued to them,
all of which I handed over to the Chinese authorities asking for a
refund of assessments thus illegally paid. On the 5th instant I
received a second communication from the Commissioner of Foreign
Affairs acknowledging the receipt of two letters with which I had
forwarded likin receipts. He returned all of
these receipts to me and again repeated the substance of the first
letter from the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs referred to above in
support of his contention that the likin
authorities were acting within their rights in demanding payment of
likin on foreign goods brought into the
city of Changsha. In this letter he again refers to the regulations
for collection of likin drawn up in
conjunction with the Commissioner of Customs at the time of the
opening of the Port of Changsha, and he states that these
regulations were notified to the various consuls in the 30th year of
Kuang Hsi by the Superintendent of Customs at Changsha. He admits
that in the 32d year of Kuang Hsi protest against these regulations
was made to the Central Government at Peking through the British and
Japanese Legations. He also states that a second protest was filed
by the Japanese Legation in 1912; he states that the dues have been
collected from the time of the enforcement of the regulations down
to the present. He again quotes from the regulations a passage which
corresponds in all respects to Article IV quoted above, and uses
this provision of the regulations as a basis for determining the
limits of the Treaty Port of Changsha. Or, in other words, for
delimiting the area within which foreign goods may be brought
without payment of likin and other charges.
He contends that the area of the trade settlement or commercial port
of Changsha was determined at an early date and that although it is
true that Changsha is a treaty port “open to international trade, it
cannot be held that foreign and Chinese godowns and warehouses both
inside and outside of the walled city are within the area of the
open treaty port.” He again argues
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that payment of likin
in the past forms a precedent for the proper collection of likin now and in the future, and contends
that there is no infraction of treaty stipulations in that when the
goods pass through the city gates they have left the confines of the
Treaty Port of Changsha.
On the 6th instant I replied to him and endeavored to answer his
arguments, and I enclose herewith a copy of my letter.4 I returned the likin receipts to him and again asked that
instructions be issued for the discontinuance of the collection of
likin on foreign goods passing through
the city gates of Changsha. I informed him that I had no knowledge
of any such regulations as had been mentioned by him and his
predecessor, establishing a procedure for the collection of likin on foreign goods imported into
Changsha, nor did I have any knowledge of consent to such
regulations on the part of my Government. In ending, I asked the
Commissioner to forward me two copies of the regulations which he
stated had been drawn up to govern the collection of likin on foreign goods imported into
Changsha. I have not as yet received any reply to this letter, but
with the Legation’s, approval if I do not receive some favorable
action through the office of the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs, I
propose to take the matter up with the Civil Governor and later with
the Legation, if necessary.
Thus far the Singer Sewing Machine Co. is the only American firm that
has filed a protest with this office against the payment of likin which is collected at the city gates on
goods carried into the walled city of Changsha. I am aware, however,
that likin is collected on all cargo which
goes into the city of Changsha. It is being successfully collected,
for it is impossible to get goods into the city without passing the
gates and the stations at the gates refuse to permit goods to enter
until payment is made.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure 3]
Minister Reinsch
to Consul Johnson
No. 1924
American Legation,
Peking,
October 21, 1916.
Sir: Referring to the despatch (No. 76) of
September 21, in which you reported further concerning the
collection of likin at the city gates of
Changsha I have to inform you that the legation approves of your
contention that the area within the walls of the city is naturally
and of course included within the port as open to foreign trade in
pursuance of the provisions of the Sino-Japanese Treaty of 1903.
It is noted that you are still awaiting copies of the likin regulations which the Chinese
authorities maintain to be applicable, and that you contemplate
further negotiations with the Commissioner for Foreign Affairs and
with the civil governor; while awaiting the outcome of your
representations to the local authorities the Legation is referring
to the Department your despatches of April 4 and September 21 (Nos.
39 and 76 respectively), with the request to be authorized, in the
event of your obtaining no satisfactory solution locally, to insist
that the Foreign Office recognize and give effect to the
construction of the treaty for which you are contending.
I am [etc.]
