23
of Liang Tou as a British subject.
With reference to the first of
these two questions. It does not appear to me that the
British Treaties anywhere clearly lay down this obligation,
and I enquired from Mr. Jamieson whether he based his con-
-tention on this point (see his No. 4 on last page of
letter to Viceroy dated 1st. December, 1909,) on Article 9
of the Tientsin Treaty (which did not appear to me to cover
it) or on the most favoured nation clause relying on an
obligation of this nature imposed upon China in a Treaty
with some other Power. He replied that he had at the time
in mind the general principle underlying every Treaty
China has made with Foreign Nations, and which is specifical-
-ly enunciated in Articles 8 and 10 of the Russian Treaty
of 1860 and Article 15 of our own Burma Convention".
Mr. Max Müller, Couneillor of
Embassy, who has been staying with me discussed the
question and expressed to me a doubt whether the Russian
Treaty would bear the interpretation put upon it. Article
15 of the Burma Convention is elear, but the privilege of
the most favoured nation clause eould hardly be invoked by
a nation in respect of a right secured under one Treaty in
regard to a particular country (e.g. Burma) and not secured
under