Papers Relating to the Foreign relations of the United States, 1927, Volume II

893.512/713: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Mayer)

[Paraphrase]

Washington, November 28, 1927—3 p.m.

391. Your telegram of November 22, 2 p.m.

1. The Department does not believe that method of payment which the American Chamber of Commerce proposed could be put in effect.

2. The Department desires to receive additional information with respect to treaty rights involved. In article 3 of the British regulations relating to transit dues, exemption certificates and coast trade, coast-trade duty is declared to be half of import duty. (See second volume, page 633 of Hertslet’s China Treaties.⁷²) Apparently the regulations are based upon an arrangement between China and Great Britain of which the text is not available to the Department. Please find out whether these regulations are now in force and whether the British Legation or other legations contemplate making them the basis of a protest against the surtax. Apparently article 44 of the treaty of 1863 between China and Denmark⁷³ limits the coast-trade duty to one-half of the tariff duty only when the goods are carried in Danish ships.

Kellogg

72. Third edition, 1908.
73. Signed at Tientsin, July 13, 1863. China, Imperial Maritime Customs III, Miscellaneous series No. 30: Treaties, Conventions, etc., Between China and Foreign States (Shanghai, 1908), vol. ii, pp. 1043, 1056.