THE CHINESE DIFFICULTY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 285, 26 October 1875, Page 4

THE CHINESE DIFFICULTY.

(2VW Zealand Tims.) The telegrams which have recently appeared relative to a difficulty between England and China, and its ultimate settlement, have given as little information beyond the fact that there was a difficulty, that it wa§ settled, and that it -had something to do with the Chinese Customs authorities and the treaty as regards Customs between England and China. But in files of the Hongkong Times, which have reached us through the courteßy of Captain Plamley, of the schooner May, the. we are able to discover some clue to , absolute causes of the quarrel, which seems to have arisen in consequence of the very liberal interpretation the Chinese Customs officers put upon their powers of seizure under the treaty. On the 27th October, 1865, Mr Wade, now British Representative at the Court of Pekin, and Prince Kung, the Chinese Prime Minister, agreed upon articles relative to cases of Customs seiaure, which were circulated for the benefit of the mercantile community. These articles merely bad reference to the mode of procedure after seizure had been made, the right of seizure being, of course, included in the treaty of Tientsin, to which reference has been made in our telegrams. Article 47 of that treaty provides that — "British merchant vessels are not entitled to resort to other than the ports of trade open by treaty, they are sot unlawfully to enter other ports in China or to carry on clandestine trade along the coast thereof." The penalty for violating this provision is possible con* fiacation of both ship and cargo by the Chinese Government. As is known, only a few Chinese ports have been declared ports of trade open by treaty, and any British vessel resorting to the closed ports is therefore liable to seizure and confiscation. It is from circumstances which have arisen out of alleged infractions of the rules for trade indicated in the treaty and articles, that the difficulty to which attention has been drawn lately has arisen, and it is not difficult on reading accounts of some of those circumstances to see how directly warlike they became. It is evident that British traders have considered that they dil not transgress the terms of the treaty if they took passengers and cargo, opium and the like, to within a few miles of closed ports, and there transferred them. to Chinese junks, in which they might, of course, be put ashore. But the Chinese Custom-house took quite a different view of this matter, and declined to permit its continuance. They were in a position, to carry out their views, too, because amongst the many improvements which the Chinese have lately effecteJ, may be reckoned a very serviceable navy, including revenue cruisers officered and partly manned by British seamen. In this state of affairs, early in July last a British steamer, the Cariebrooke, was seized off a closed port, Hainan, by the Chinese revenue cruiser Peng Chao Hai, and following her seizure came some very exciting events, which were detailed before the mixed Coutt of Chinese and English officials, who, according to the "articles," tried the case. The chief witness for the Chinese Customs authorities said he was on board the Peng Chao Hai, which went to Hainan for a cruise. " They first saw the Carisbrooko when about seven miles from her. They went to her ; the Carisbrooke being then less than two milea from the shore. The Car is* brooke was seen to be discharging passengers and cargo into juDks. Witness and Captain Palmer went on board her, and asked Captain Scott what he was doing there. The latter replit d that he was landing passengers. They told him he had no business there, it being a non-treaty port. They aeked him what passengers he bad for that place, and he replied 150. They also asked if he bad any cargo for there, and he replied that be had a supercargo on board, who could give particulars as to the cargo. Captain Scott produced a manifest of his cargo for Hongkong, Amoy, and Swatow, and the Hainan cargo was written down at the time. Ib consisted of eleven cases of opium and six packages of piece goods. He told Captain Scott that he must follow him with his steamer to Wbampoa, for breaking the treaty. He asked Captain Scott three times; be replied, verbally, that be would. Captain Scott aeked that he might be allowed to land the Hainan passengers there, as it would save both ship and passengers expense, and he told him he must make an application in writing. Captain Scott did so, and witness granted the request, on condition that their baggage was inspected. This was done. The chief officer (Mr Collins) and three quarter-masters of the Peng Cbao Hai were then sent on , board the Carisbrooke, and shortly after both vessels started away. They kept together for a while, and then the Peng Chao Hai signalled to the Carisbrooke to alter her course. In the afternoon, Mr Collins signalled that the Peng Cbao Hai was steering for Hongkong, and that Captain Scott bad unrove the signal halyards, and would not allow them to signal with them. All night the vessels kept company, and in the morning the Carisbrooke was again signalled to alter her course; bat Captain Scott refused. Witness then wrote on a board that he would use force, if necessary, to compel obedienoe to hia instructions, Aa (ha

steamer did not alter her coarse, he fired a blank charge across her bows'. She, however, stttl kept on the same course. The witness wished, it to be clearly- understood that he did not desire to injure aayone on boaril the steamer, but he determined to disable her. Eor this purpose he fired four shots at the rudder, hitting it each time. He himself fired the shots to make sure of ihe accuracy of tie aim. He denied that the side of the steamer was struck by a shot, attributing the damage to the side to a bolt disconnected from the radder. After the four shots had been fired, Captain Scott signalled for them to cime closer. They were then sixty or seventy yards off. On their doing so, Captain Scott said he refused to follow to Whampoa, and that they muat themselves take fall charge and possession of the ship. At his request, a written document to that effect was handed him. They sent on board one engineer, some fireman, and crew, and took possession and control of the steamer. They attempted to tow her, but the tow-rope broke, and then the Carisbrooke steamed after them. They aachored at Tiger Island for the night, and the next morning went to Whampoa/' The captain of the Carisbrooke, on the other side, denied the accuracy of many of these statements, especially as to the distance the steamer was from the Hainan shore. He called witnesses who disproved the statement aa to the Carisbrooke not beiog more than two miies from the shore. It was almost impossible to get bearings, so that to judge of the distance was only guesswork. "He believed his vessel was at least a mile and a half from the breakers, and tha chart showed the breakers to be two miles from the land. It had been said there were contraband goods amongst the cargo; but that he denied; it wea not ship's cargo, but passengers' luggage. Not being cargo, he did not see how it implicated the ship. There were twelve oases of opium for Hainan. The whole interest of the ship in calling at Hainan, in passengers and freight, was 1200 dollars," The counsel for the captain of the Carisbrooke handed in to the Court a long written protest and statement, of which the followicg is the more important part :— " The gravamen of the charge against the Cariabrooke is, that when seized she was clandestinely trading/ or it must fall to the ground, Mere trading, without the elemeut of clandestineness, is obviously not enough. This was plainly ihe object of the treaty, because it must have been foreseen, as has happened, that trade in diff.r^nt spots and under certain conditions might grow up and receive for years the silent sanction of custom without the formal sanction of treaty, and that it would be monstrous, in cases where such trade had bees there informally or even irregularly legitimated, to allow the Chinese Government to turn round upon it, and put in force the tremendous engine of confiscation. The treaty did not contemplate such a construction, and the word ' clandestine ' was introduced, as I submit, to guard against an interpretation bo harsh as this, the consequences of which might be sufficient to involve people wholly innocent of any offence, in complete ruin. Whether or not therefore the Carisbrooke was engaged in clandestine trade along the coast in fair meaning of the term, involves an issue of momentous importance. In the first place, is she the Kind of vessel one would expect to find knowingly engaged in an unlawful enterprise, the iesue of which might be confiscation ? The answer must be, Certainly not ! She is a valuable new steamer of nearly 1,000 tons register, and flying the British flag. Her net cost, including alterations to fit her for the China trade, has been altogether 140,000 dollars., and she has been off the stocks only two years. She has no great speed to fit her for unlawful service, such as now would be undoubtedly required. A vessel more unfit or more unlikely to be knowingly used in an unlawful enterprise of this kind, could scarcely have been selected. |n the second place, was her cargo such as was likely to be placed on board a ship knowingly sect on an unlawful enterprise ? Again the answer must be obviously the same. It wae a valuable general cargo, consisting of Chinese Singapore goods, and was worth about 200,000 dols. The whole ot the cargo was destined for Hongkong, Swatow, and Amoy, with the exception of the few chests of opium and cases of piece goods belonging to the passengers for Hainan, which I shall presently refer to. In the next place, in considering this question of clandestineness, it is highly important to consider the proportion between the profit earned and the risk run by the ship id gaining that profit. The interest which the ship had in touching at Hainan amounted in the gross to something a little over 1250 dols, from which must he deducted something like 300 dols — expenses due to stoppage. At the outside, therefore, the ship would not earn above 1000 dollars in freight for running this tremendous rißk. Otherwise than in the earning of freight, the ship had no interest whatever in the venture. The disproportion between profit and risk is therefore almost immeasurable, and this has not only a moßt important bearing on the bona fides of the whole transaction, but also it should be one of the most important elements for the Court to consider if it should be against ma on the main question, in estimating the aoaouut. of penalty to be inflicted."

During tha sitting of the Coartthe Hongkong papers were loud in dissatisfaction, and it was plainly alleged that the Chinese members of the Court, with whom the decision of the case really rested, were personally interested in confirming the seiaure. They did co, and decided on confiscation of the ship and cargo, but Her Majesty's Consul being unable to agree with this, the whole case was referred to the high authorities of both, nations at Pekin for decision, and pending this the Carisbrook was released on bond. It is quite evident that it was the reference of this case that has lately created the difficulty at Peking between Mr Wade and the Chinese authorities, regarding the Customs clauses of the Treaty of Tientsin and the subsequent articles, and it is now evident that the ultimate result has been in favor of the British trader.