Semi-official correspondence from selected ports

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Summary

The Chinese Maritime Customs Service operated with a strictly delineated and strictly limited repertoire of official forms of internal communication including Circulars, Despatches, Memoranda and R...

The Chinese Maritime Customs Service operated with a strictly delineated and strictly limited repertoire of official forms of internal communication including Circulars, Despatches, Memoranda and Returns, as well as Semi-Official letters. Surviving runs of the latter type from four important ports are reproduced here, and provide a significant and unique new resource for the study of national and local events, their reception and their representation, in each of the four cities concerned (Hankow, Harbin, Shanghai, and Swatow). They also reveal much about the official -- and notably the unofficial -- history of the workings of the Customs Service and the lives of its personnel.

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