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tion 8 of Ordinance 1 of 1865.
As to the protection to which individual mem-
bers of the Company so formed, not being British subjects, are entitled that is another matter altogether.
If a Frenchman or Chinaman signs a memorandum
of association of, or becomes a shareholder in a British Com- pany (in the sense of its being a Company constituted under British Laws regulating its constitution and liabilities and the liabilities of its members, inter se, and as regards credi- tors and others) such Frenchman remains a Frenchman and such
Chinaman remains a Chinaman.
I regard the question of what protection should be given to such a Company or its members,nat British subjects engaged in China on the Company's business" as a question to be decided by the instructions given to Consuls through the Minister at Peking or the Foreign Office.I am not aware of any legal right to such protection and do not see how any Court could enforce such right. In a matter of the policy of the Fo- reign Office I do not know that my view is entitled to any particular weight.
I annex particulars of the signatures to the memoranda of Association of the various Companies of the kind recently formed and I think the Secretary of State might well be informed of this
"new departure" and be asked whether he thinks it would be advisable to legislate acquiring any mini- mum fixed proportion of the capital of such company to be held
by