1111 2 Britain’s Imperial Cornerstone 3 4 in China 5111 6 The Chinese Maritime Customs 7 Service, 1854–1949 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 The Chinese Maritime Customs Service was an institution that for over 4 80 years held an integral role in facilitating foreign trade along the China 5 coast and waterways. Established as the Imperial Maritime Customs 6 Service in the wake of China’s defeat in the Opium Wars (1842–3), it 7 became a central feature of the Treaty Port system. This British-dominated 8 service also encompassed other responsibilities such as harbour mainten- 9 ance, lighthouse service, quarantine, anti-piracy patrols and postal ser- 20111 vices. The Maritime Customs Service sat at a crucial juncture between 1 Chinese and foreign interests, and was intimately linked to British inter- 2 ests and fortunes in the Far East (most particularly through the aspirations 3 of the British Inspectors General at its helm). It was these inherent 4 conflicting interests that led the Service to face serious challenges to its 5 integrity in the 1920s and 1930s; and these challenges are examined in 6 detail in this work. 7 This book provides an overview of the development of the Chinese 8 Maritime Customs Service as an essentially imperial institution focusing 9 especially on the fate of the foreign inspectorate in its last decades when 30111 it faced challenges from nationalist elements, civil unrest and war, 1 compounded with tensions between the inspectorate and British interests 2 in China. 3 4 Donna Brunero is a Research Fellow in the Department of Historical 5 Studies, University of Bristol. 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44111 Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia 1 The Police in Occupation Japan 9 Japanese Industrialisation Control, Corruption and Resistance Historical and Cultural Perspectives to Reform Ian Inkster Christopher Aldous 10 War and Nationalism in China 2 Chinese Workers 1925–1945 A New History Hans J. van de Ven Jackie Sheehan 11 Hong Kong in Transition 3 The Aftermath of Partition in One Country, Two Systems South Asia Edited by Robert Ash, Peter Tai Yong Tan and Gyanesh Ferdinand, Brian Hook and Robin Kudaisya Porter 4 The Australia–Japan Political 12 Japan’s Postwar Economic Alignment Recovery and Anglo-Japanese 1952 to the Present Relations, 1948–1962 Alan Rix Noriko Yokoi 13 Japanese Army Stragglers and 5 Japan and Singapore in the Memories of the War in Japan, World Economy 1950–1975 Japan’s Economic Advance into Beatrice Trefalt Singapore, 1870–1965 Shimizu Hiroshi and Hirakawa 14 Ending the Vietnam War Hitoshi The Vietnamese Communists’ Perspective 6 The Triads as Business Ang Cheng Guan Yiu Kong Chu 15 The Development of the Japanese 7 Contemporary Taiwanese Nursing Profession Cultural Nationalism Adopting and Adapting Western A-chin Hsiau Influences Aya Takahashi 8 Religion and Nationalism in India 16 Women’s Suffrage in Asia The Case of the Punjab Gender Nationalism and Democracy Harnik Deol Louise Edwards and Mina Roces 1111 17 The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 28 A Colonial Economy in Crisis 2 1902–1922 Burma’s Rice Delta and the World 3 Phillips Payson O’Brien Depression of the 1930s Ian Brown 4 18 The United States and Cambodia, 5111 1870–1969 29 A Vietnamese Royal Exile in 6 From Curiosity to Confrontation Japan 7 Kenton Clymer Prince Cuong De (1882–1951) 8 Tran My-Van 9 19 Capitalist Restructuring and the 1011 Pacific Rim 30 Corruption and Good Ravi Arvind Palat Governance in Asia 1 Nicholas Tarling 2 20 The United States and Cambodia, 3111 1969–2000 31 US–China Cold War 4 A Troubled Relationship Collaboration, 1971–1989 5 Kenton Clymer S. Mahmud Ali 6 21 British Business in Post-Colonial 32 Rural Economic Development in 7 Malaysia, 1957–70 Japan 8 ‘Neo-colonialism’ or From the Nineteenth Century to the 9 ‘Disengagement’? Pacific War 20111 Nicholas J. White Penelope Francks 1 2 22 The Rise and Decline of Thai 33 Colonial Armies in Southeast Asia Absolutism 3 Edited by Karl Hack and Tobias Kullada Kesboonchoo Mead Rettig 4 5111 23 Russian Views of Japan, 34 Intra Asian Trade and the World 6 1792–1913 Market 7 An Anthology of Travel Writing A.J.H. Latham and Heita 8 David N. Wells Kawakatsu 9 24 The Internment of Western 35 Japanese-German Relations, 30111 Civilians under the Japanese, 1895–1945 1 1941–1945 War, Diplomacy and Public 2 A Patchwork of Internment Opinion 3 Bernice Archer Edited by Christian W. Spang and 4 Rolf-Harald Wippich 25 The British Empire and Tibet 5 1900–1922 6 36 Britain’s Imperial Cornerstone in Wendy Palace China 7 The Chinese Maritime Customs 26 Nationalism in Southeast Asia 8 Service, 1854–1949 If the People Are With Us 9 Donna Brunero 40111 Nicholas Tarling 1 27 Women, Work and the Japanese 2 Economic Miracle 3 The Case of the Cotton Textile 44 Industry, 1945–1975 45111 Helen Macnaughtan 1111 2 Britain’s Imperial 3 4 Cornerstone in China 5111 6 The Chinese Maritime Customs 7 8 Service, 1854–1949 9 1011 1 2 3111 Donna Brunero 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 44 I~ ~~o~;~;n~~;up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2006 Donna Brunero Typeset in Times New Roman by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Brunero, Donna Britain’s imperial cornerstone in China: the Chinese maritime customs service, 1854–1945/Donna Brunero p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Great Britain – Foreign relations – China. 2. China – Foreign relations – Great Britain. 3. Great Britain – Foreign relations – 19th century. I. Title. DS740.5.G5B78 2006 352.4′48′095109034 – dc22 2005018916 ISBN13: 978-0-415-32619-3 (hbk) 1111 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 For my parents 4 5 6 7 8 9 20111 1 2 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 30111 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 40111 1 2 3 44 45111 1111 2 Contents 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 List of illustrations x 4 Preface xi 5 Acknowledgements xiii 6 List of abbreviations xv 7 8 9 1 Introduction 1 20111 1 2 An institutional review 22 2 3 3 Gunboats and revenue, 1923–7 54 4 5111 4 Nationalist ascendancy and the politics of being 6 Inspector General 79 7 8 9 5 Charting a new course: the proposed Hong Kong–China 30111 Trade and Customs Agreement, 1929–30 101 1 2 6 A Service in decline 118 3 4 7 ‘Steadfast and fearlessly persistent’: the CMCS in the 5 face of war, 1937–45 147 6 7 8 Notes 161 9 Bibliography 190 40111 Index 196 1 2 3 44 45111 Illustrations Tables 1.1 The opening of treaty ports and Customs houses 12 2.1 Selected Customs Commissioners of 1911 25 2.2 Revenue and receipts of the Nationalist Government, 1929–34 33 2.3 Revenue of the Maritime Customs Service, 1923–37 36 Figures 2.1 Structure of the Maritime Customs Service, c.1922 24 2.2 Customs Commissioner’s house, Macao c.1926 with Le Bas family in the foreground 49 2.3 Customs Commissioner’s house, Macao c.1926; Commissioner Le Bas entertaining guests 50 2.4 View over Macao from the Customs Commissioner’s house 50 2.5 Social function aboard a Customs Cruiser, hosted by Commissioner Le Bas c.1926 52 2.6 Social function aboard a Customs Cruiser, hosted by Commissioner Le Bas c.1926 53 6.1 Sapajou, ‘A Domestic Question – What it is no use crying over’ 124 6.2 Sapajou, ‘Heads or Haunches? The shadow and the substance’ 125 1111 2 Preface 3 4 5111 6 7 8 9 1011 1 2 3111 It is common knowledge that during the past eight or nine decades the quasi- 4 British controlled Inspectorate of Customs has hitherto been a corner-stone 5 of British position in China and has been co-equal with the name of England 6 in the Far East. And it should be considered furthermore, that the influ- 7 ence and prestige of the Inspectorate General throughout this period was attained and sustained solely by individual exertions 8 1 9 Sir Frederick Maze, 21 December 1943 20111 1 So wrote the recently retired Inspector General (IG) of the Chinese Maritime 2 Customs Service (CMCS), Sir Frederick Maze, the determined and some- 3 times unpopular leader of this service from 1929 to 1943. After an embattled 4 and embittering term as IG, marked by the resistance of Chinese nation- 5111 alist forces and British Foreign Office indifference, Maze’s resignation in 6 late May 1943 brought to a close over 80 years of British predominance 7 in the CMCS. This institution, greatly diminished as a result of the Sino- 8 Japanese War, continued to function under an American IG and relocated 9 to Taiwan in 1949.