The Shui-wu-chu was created in 1906, without, as the Times
says, consultation with the foreign Powers or with Sir Robert Hart. The Controllers were to have direct authority over the whole Service, and Sir Robert Hart saw at once that the Chinese Government aimed at the destruction of the Inspectorate. The British Government, however, accepted the Chinese assurances that no such thing was contemplated, and eventually Sir Robert Hart himself advised all the European employees of the Customs to fall in with the new arrangement. Sir Robert Bredon's subsequent appointment as a Controller strengthened the suspicion that the Chinese, for all their assurances, really intended to abolish the Inspectorship,—in other words, the independence of the Maritime Customs Service. If the independence of the Service is undermined, it will, of course, become as corrupt as any other Chinese Department. This is a matter which concerns not only the Chinese, but a great many British investors. Sir Robert Bredon has acted well in resigning his anomalous position, and we trust that the British Govern- ment will make it perfectly clear now that the independence of the Maritime Customs Service, so ably created and main- tained by Sir Robert Hart., must not be interfered with.
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