NEW TRADE REGULATIONS ON THE YANGTZE.

Minister Denby sends from Pekin, under date of May 18, 1898, copy of the revised regulations of trade on the Yangtze River, which will take effect after they have received the approval of the foreign representatives at Pekin. The inclosure reads:

YANGTZE REGULATIONS.

ARTICLE I. The revised regulations of trade on the Yangtze-Kiang (1862) having been amended and the substance of their provisions having been incorporated in the present Yangtze regulations, the said revised regulations of trade on the Yangtze-Kiang are hereby abrogated, together with the port and customs regulations thereon dependent.

ART. 2. The merchant vessels of the treaty powers are authorized to trade on the Yangtze-Kiang at the following treaty ports: Chinkiang, Nankin, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankau, Shasi, Ichang, and Chungking; and to land and ship goods in accordance with special regulations at the following nontreaty ports: Tatung and Ngan-King, in Ngan-hui; Hukow, in Kiangsi; Luchikow and Wusueh, in HuKwang. Shipment or discharge of cargo at any other ports on the river is prohibited, and any violation of the prohibition will be dealt with in accordance with the treaty provisions applicable to clandestine trade along the coast; but passengers and their baggage may be landed and shipped at any of the regular passenger stations (at present consisting of Kiangyin and Iching, in Liang-Kiang; Hwangtsze Kang and Huang Chow, in Hu-Kwang). Passengers' baggage must not contain articles subject to duty, and the presence of dutiable articles will render the whole liable to confiscation.

ART. 3. Merchant vessels trading on the river are to be divided into three classes

First class: Seagoing vessels trading for the voyage up river beyond Chinkiang. Second class: Steamers running regularly between any of the river ports or between Shanghai and any river port.

Third class: Lorchas, papichos, junks, etc.

These three classes of vessels will be dealt with according to treaty and the rules for the various ports.

ART. 4. Seagoing vessels.—Seagoing vessels trading no further up river than Chinkiang will be dealt with at Chinkiang in every respect like vessels trading at other coast ports, but seagoing vessels on a voyage further up river than Chinkiang become thereby vessels trading on the river of the first class, set forth in the preceding article; such merchantmen, whether steamers or sailing vessels, must deposit their registers with the consul, or, if there is no consular representative, with the custom-houses at Shanghai, Woosung, or Chinkiang, which, on receipt of a consular application or on deposit of papers, will issue a certificate to the vessel, to be called a "special river pass," on which shall be entered the vessel's name, flag, registered tonnage, general cargo, and armament. The vessel may then proceed up river; and at whatever treaty ports she trades must report and clear, load and unload cargo, and pay dues and duties in the same manner as at other treaty ports along the coast. On return to the port that issued it-Chinkiang, Woosung, or Shanghaithe "special river pass" is to be surrendered to the customs, which, having ascer tained that all dues and duties have been paid and all other conditions satisfied, will grant the clearance to enable the vessel to proceed to sea.

ART. 5. River steamers.—Any steamer intended to trade regularly on the river may deposit her register at the consulate at Shanghai, or, if without consular representative, at the custom-house, when the customs, on receipt of a consular application or on deposit of the register, will issue a certificate on which shall be entered the vessel's name, flag, registered tonnage, and armament, to be called a "river pass," that shall be valid during the current year; such pass must be renewed every year, either at Shanghai or at Hankau or Ichang in the case of river steamers trading above those places and not returning to Shanghai.

River-pass steamers will report and clear, load and discharge, and pay dues and duties in accordance with the customs regulations of the port concerned; their tonnage dues are to be paid at the ports which issue or renew the river pass (Shanghai, Hankau, or Ichang).

Infringement of river port regulations will be punished by the infliction of the penalties in force at the other treaty ports; for a second offense the river pass may be canceled and the steamer refused permission to trade thenceforward above Chinkiang.

Any steamer not provided with a river pass, if proceeding above Chinkiang, will come under the rule affecting seagoing vessels laid down in article 4, and will be treated accordingly.

ART. 6. Cargo of river-pass steamers.-The former regulations, which made it obligatory to deposit coast-trade duties simultaneously with paying export duties, having been abrogated, river-pass steamers will now pay duties in the same way as vessels at other treaty ports along the coast, that is, export duties at the port of departure before shipment of exports, and import or coast-trade duties at the port of discharge before release of imports; and similarly they will ship, transship, and discharge cargo after examination and issue of permit in the same way as vessels at treaty ports along the coast.

When tea is landed by a river-pass steamer, the consignee, instead of paying coast-trade duty, may deposit a bond for the amount; on proof of reshipment within a year the bond will be canceled. When reshipped tea is relanded at another port-e. g., reshipped at Hankau and relanded at Shanghai-a new bond will be required in lieu of coast-trade duty, to be canceled on reshipment, and so on. ART. 7. Small craft (lorchas, papichos, junks, etc.):

(a) Lorchas, etc., owned by foreigners, if provided with registers and entitled to fly national flags, are required to take out a special river pass, either through the consulate or from the customs direct at Chinkiang, if proceeding further up the river. They will report, work cargo, and pay duties like other seagoing special river-pass vessels.

(b) Papichos, etc., owned by foreigners, but not provided with registers or entitled to fly national flags, are to take out customs registers at the port they belong to and report, work cargo, and pay duties in the same way as lorchas, etc.

(c) Chinese junks chartered by foreigners are available only for conveying foreign-owned cargo from treaty ports to treaty ports; they must take out special junk papers at the customs, to be obtained in exchange for bonds executed at, and deposited with, the customs, the condition of the bond being that the cargoes are bona fide foreign property and will be landed and pay duty at a treaty port, the penalty being that if the cargoes fail to be so landed and pay duty, no chartered junk will thereafter be cleared for the foreigner in question. Such junks are to report, work cargo, and pay duties in the same way as lorchas and papichos.

ART. 8. Cargo certificates.-Special river-pass merchantmen, river-pass steamers, and lorchas, papichos, junks, etc., must apply to the customs at the port of departure for a cargo certificate (tsung tan), which, on the vessel's arrival at the port of destination, must be handed to the customs before permission to discharge can

be given. The vessel will be responsible for the duties on all goods entered on the said cargo certificate and not landed on permit at the port of discharge.

ART. 9. Miscellaneous.—Any trading vessel falling in with a revenue cruiser or customs boat on the Yangtze-Kiang is to produce her papers for inspection, if examination of them is required. Vessels unprovided with proper papers will be dealt with under the treaty articles penalizing clandestine trade along the coast. The customs may seal the hatches of any vessel trading on the Yangtze-Kiang, and may place a customs officer on board to accompany her on the trip, whether up stream or down. Special river-pass vessels of the first class are not required to anchor to exhibit their papers at the intermediate ports passed and not traded at.

ART. 10. Yangtze customs and port regulations.-The adoption and promulgation of new regulations for vessels trading on the Yangtze having rendered meaningless sundry customs and port regulations which guided procedure under the former system, and having necessitated the substitution of fresh regulations and different practice under the system now introduced, the ports concerned (Shanghai, Chinkiang, Nankin, Wuhu, Kiukiang, Hankau, Shasi, Ichang, and Chungking) will proceed forthwith to arrange and publish new rules and regulations; and these are meant, on the one hand, to facilitate trade, and, on the other, to protect revenue and prevent smuggling.

The above regulations are open to revision when and if necessary.

COTTON AND COTTON GOODS IN JAPAN.

Consul Lyon sends from Hiogo, under date of May 17, 1898, a statement of the imports of raw cotton into Japan, and also a separate table of imports in this line into Hiogo, both for 1897, as follows:

The principal importers of raw cotton in Osaka and Kobé, according to Mr. Lyon, are: Frazar & Co. (American firm), Kobé; China and Japan Trading Company (American firm), Kobé; H. Lucas & Co. (British firm), Kobé; H. Ahrens & Co. (German firm), Kobé; Mitsui Bussau Kaisha (Japanese firm), Osaka and Kobé; the Japan Trading Company (Japanese firm), Osaka.

Consul Harris, of Nagasaki, under date of April 25, 1898, sends the following table of imports of cotton goods into Japan in 1897:

OPENING OF PORTS IN KOREA.

The Korean Government has announced its intention to shortly open four new ports to foreign trade. The proposed ports are as follows: Sung-chin, on the northeast coast near the Russian frontier and in the province of Ham Kyung; Kuhn-san, in the North Culla. Province, on the southwest coast, about midway between Chemulpo and Mokpo; Masampo, in the South Kyung Sang Province, on the south coast, near to Fusan; and the northern capital, Peng-yang. The conditions have not yet been determined and the date for opening these ports has not been announced. They will probably be

subject to the same municipal regulations as those drawn up for the recently opened ports Mokpo and Chenampo (see CONSULAR REports No. 209, February, 1898, p. 228).

This action will give Korea ten open ports, namely, Seoul, Chemulpo, Fusan, Genaan, Peng-yang, Sung-chin, Kuhn-san, and Masampo.

It is also announced that 900,000 square meters (222 acres) will be allotted on Deer Island, in Fusan Harbor, for a general foreign settlement for Fusan. The Japanese have maintained a large and thriving city at Fusan for over two hundred years, but the settlement for foreigners has never been definitely laid out. Owing to the rugged character of the mainland and the fact that the only available sites were long ago taken by the Japanese, the low-lying end of Deer Island, a few hundred yards distant from the Japanese town, offered the only suitable site for a foreign settlement.

It is

The proposed Russian coaling station on Deer Island, of which there has been much said in the newspapers of late, is included in the site for the new settlement. It is understood, however, that this is in accordance with the wishes of the Russian officials. There is a small colony of Americans resident at Fusan. thought that the opening of the new port Masampo, only 30 to 50 miles distant from Fusan, will do the trade of the latter much injury, as Masampo is said to possess a better harbor and is on a river which gives it good communication with the interior. Fusan, on the contrary, has no such river communication, and is further hemmed in by rough hills and mountains.

HORACE N. ALLEN,

SEOUL, June 3, 1898.

Consul-General.

COTTON PIECE-GOODS TRADE AT CALCUTTA.

In continuation of my report on cotton goods in British India, dated March 30, 1898,* I inclose the report of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce on cotton piece goods and yarn passed at the customhouse for the months January to April, 1898, which shows the magnitude of the trade at Calcutta.

In the report above referred to, I said that the United Kingdom controls about 99 per cent of this trade; but now that there is a direct line of steamships between Calcutta and New York, saving time as well as the cost of transshipping the goods, there is no good reason why our manufacturers should not compete for this trade and secure a good share of it.

* See CONSULAR REPORTS No. 214 (July, 1898), p. 379.