FOREIGN TRADE ZONES 
Among the free trade ports of this class may be mentioned Hong Kong, 
Weihaiwei, Dairen, and Kowloon, China; Singapore and Malacca, 
Straits Settlements; and Aden, Arabia. These ports are open to 
the ships and commerce of the world. Such restrictions as exist 
apply to specific commodities and not to specific parts of the ports. 
Another free trade port is Gibraltar, but its use for transshipping 
purposes, except for business to and from Morocco, is not great. 
Hong Kong. —The British colony of Hong Kong occupies a unique 
position in world trade. With the exception of duties on wines and 
spirits, trade at the port of Hong Kong is wholly free. For this reason 
it is properly classed as a free trade port and not a free port. Hong 
Kong is the distributing center for the enormous trade of south China, 
and about 30 per cent of the entire foreign trade of China passes 
through the colony. It is essentially an entrep6t where merchandise 
from all parts of the world is interchanged. The colony produces noth- 
ing, animal, vegetable or mineral, of any importance from the point 
of view of world trade. Its local consumption, except in the case of 
materials for shipbuilding, ship repairing, and ship furnishing, is 
equally negligible. Such industries as exist are related mainly to 
the needs of the local population, except the products of the tin and 
sugar refineries and the tobacco factories, which are destined almost 
wholly for reexportation. The whole trade of the colony may be 
regarded as transshipment. 
Much of the trade out of China is carried by regular lines of river 
steamers, which require to unload and reload for the return journey 
with as little delay as possible. Merchants, both native and foreign, 
give special attention to the assembling and transshipping of mer- 
chandise to and from all parts of the world, and with the world-wide 
steamship connections at Hong Kong the necessity for retransship- 
ment at other ports is reduced to a minimum. Most of the Chinese 
foreign trade handled in Hong Kong passes the Chinese customs at 
Canton or Kowloon, but some goes through Foochow, Amoy, Swatow, 
Samshui, Kongmoon, Wuchow, and a few minor ports. Hong Kong 
being an island, the terminus of the railroad from Canton is at 
Kowloon. 
Weihaiwei, in the province of Shantung, was leased to Great 
Britain in 1898. The territory leased comprises the port and bay, 
the island of Liu Kung, all the islands in the bay, and a belt of land 
10 miles wide along the entire coast line of the bay. It has an area 
of 285 square miles. The port is duty free. 
Dairen and Kowloon are usually classed as free ports. The exemp- 
tion from customs duties applies only to commerce of these districts. 
All goods passing in and out of the interior are subject to Chinese 
duties, which are assessed both on imports and exports. Kowloon 
is under British control. Dairen and Tsingtau are both practically