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Hong Kong Government.
In reference to this suggestion, I am directed by the Plenipotentiary General to request that you will state to the Earl of Carnarvon that the Japanese Government invited Her Majesty's Government to enter into a Convention similar to that with the United States; but the proposal was declined, as the Foreign Office and this Department considered it advisable to wait until practical experience should have shown, by the working of the Convention between Japan and the United States, what guarantees for the safe and punctual delivery of Mails entrusted to the Japanese Post Office.
Lord John Manners does not think that it would be politic for the Government of Hong Kong to enter into a Convention, as proposed, when, for the reasons above mentioned, Her Majesty's Government have declined to do so.
I am to request that you will be good enough to lay before the Earl of Carnarvon the enclosed copy of a letter which, after consultation with this Department, Her Majesty's Secretary for Foreign Affairs wrote to...