364

THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

The  cosmopolitan  character  of  the  Service  may  be

nature  of  the  work  done  by  the  Chinese  Customs  Service,
differing,  as  it  does,  so  much  from  the  work  done  by  corresponding ­
  organisations  in  other  parts  of  the  world.
On  the  entry  of  a  ship,  her  papers  are  deposited  with
the  Consul  of  her  nationality,  to  be  surrendered  only  up OI j
issue  of  a  provisional  Customs  clearance.  The  passing  0
the  import  cargo  proceeds  much  as  elsewhere,  but  note  15
to  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  from  point  to  point  the  foreign
ship  and  the  foreign  merchant  are  covered  by  the  privilege
of  extraterritoriality.  Against  an  offending  ship  the
Customs  have  only  three  remedies,  all  strictly  limited  W
treaty.  For  clandestine  trading  she  may  be  prohibited
from  further  trading  along  the  coast,  a  penalty  which
never  yet  been  enforced  ;  and  for  having  on  board  u#'

judged  from  the  following  table  showing  the  number  0
each  foreign  nationality  on  the  staff  as  it  stood  in  187^
and  in  1906.

Nationality.

American
Austrian  ..
Belgian  ..
British
Danish
Dutch
French
German  ..
Greek
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese  ..
Luxemburger
Norwegian
Portuguese
Russian  ..
Siamese  ..
Spanish  ..
Swedish  ..
Swiss

46
5
4

88
18
xo

738

28  I
34

9

2

42
iS
64
170

2

3

21

12

2
2

3

5

68
27
20
3
14
49
3

An  attempt  will  now  be  made  to  give  some  idea  of  the