246
[This Document is the Property of His Britanie Majesty's Government,
4810
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[2232]
No. 1.
Reco REGP18 FEB 10
[January 20.]
SECTION 2.
Sir,
Board of Trade to Foreign Office.-(Received January 20.)
Board of Trade, January 19, 1910.
I AM directed by the Board of Trade to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th November, on the subject of the preferential rates accorded to French goods on the Yunnan Railway, and asking for an expression of the views of the Board as to the existence of any grounds for approaching the French Government with regard to this matter.
In reply I am to state that the Board attach importance, as a question of principle, to the maintenance of equality of treatment for all goods, whatever their country of origin, carried on railways within the Chinese Empire, and also to the full preservation of the rights accorded to this country by article 4 of the Anglo-French declaration of 1896, relating to Szechuan and Yunnan. In the present case, the Board doubt if the matter referred to in your letter under reply is of sufficient practical importance to British trade to render formal representations to the French Government necessary. They therefore suggest that the case might be met by informing the French Government that the attention of His Majesty's Government has been called to the differentiation, and that while they refrain from raising objection in this particular case, they trust that it will not be made a precedent for similar action elsewhere, as they would regard any such differentiation against British trade as inconsistent with the general principle of equality of treatment affirmed in article 4 of the agreement referred to above.
I have, &c.
GEO. J. STANLEY.
[2581 u-2]
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