893.512/726: Telegram
The Consul General of Shanghai (Cunningham) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 7—7:53 a.m.]
Referring to your telegram No. 391 of November 28, 3 p.m. to the Legation, Peking.
Coast-trade duty has heretofore been levied at the rate of two and one-half percent in accordance with treaty provisions quoted by the Department as well as section 3, article 4, of the Chefoo agreement of 1876,78 which provisions inferentially are confirmed by provisions of article 5, section 6 (b), of British regulation[s] for trade on West River, 1905,79 and article 1, section 6, of Yangtze regulations of 1898.80
2. New surtax of one-half of regular treaty coast-trade duty appears in violation of above treaty provisions but neither British consul general nor other consular officers here have yet protested the new surtax. Repeated to Legation.
- Agreement between Great Britain and China, signed at Chefoo, Sept. 13, 1876, China, Imperial Maritime Customs III, Miscellaneous series No. 30: Treaties, Conventions, etc., vol. i, pp. 299, 305.↩
- Regulations of Trade on the West River, issued by the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, Canton, April 1905, British and Foreign State Papers, 1904–1905, vol. xcviii, pp. 449, 452.↩
- Regulations governing trade on the Yangtze-kiang (with Yangtze Port Regulations), August 1898. Text as published by Inspector General of Customs printed in MacMurray, Treaties and Agreements With and Concerning China, 1894–1911, vol. i, pp. 163, 167.↩