CONFIDENTIAL
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unprofitable.
Such action would be strenuously opposed by the Board
of Trade as well as by the "China Trade" lobby, and would not in any
case affect all companies as some carry their own insurance.
(c)
Harassment of Chinese ships in British ports
Few Chinese vessels call at British ports (not more than one a
month). They could be subjected to considerable delays since there
are a number of international agreements on safety regulations to
which the Chinese Government are not a party. Harbour authorities
could, therefore, insist on thorough inspections of the ships, and
could refuse clearance until they were satisfied that all was in
order. The objection to such action is that the Chinese have ample
scope for retaliation against British vessels in China, and are not
necessarily constrained in their behaviour by civilized or humani-
tarian considerations, as we are.
(a) Action to reduce imports from China
No powers exist to compel importers to boycott a specific
country. The only recent peacetime precedent would be Rhodesia,
where H.M.G. are implementing a Security Council resolution. Exhora
tations to restrict imports would be ineffective in the absence of
some public declaration that trade with China was not in the national
interest. Action could be taken to reduce the Chinese share of goods
whose importation is regulated by quotas, but this would be open to
objection by traders for the same reason. (Some discrimination
against China has already been shown in that the quota increases
agreed for some other Communist countries were not applied to China.)
In any case, as less than 10% of our imports from China consist of
items on quota, the effect of action would be minimal.
CONFIDEIUT TAT,
../ (e)