[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[46241]
No. 1.
[December 22.]
SECTION 1
C 0 3447
:
Sir,
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.-(Received December 22.) 1:2
Downing Street, December 21, 1910.
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, for the observations of Secretary Sir E. Grey, with reference to letter to the Colonial Office of the 19th August, copy of despatch (with enclosure) from the Acting Governor of Hong Kong, on the subject of the question whether privileges similar to those granted to France by the Franco-Chinese Convention of 1887 should be claimed for Hong Kong.
I am, &c.
FRANCIS J. 8. HOPWOOD,
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Acting Governor Sir F. May to the Earl of Crewe.
(Confidential.) My Lord,
Government House, Hong Kong, October 19, 1910. WITH reference to your Lordship's Confidential despatch of the 30th August last, I have the honour to forward the enclosed copy of a minute, dated the 15th instant, by Mr. E. A. Hewett, chairman of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, and unofficial member of the executive and legislative councils of this Colony, and to point out there is much force in the penultimate paragraph thereof. I venture, therefore, to suggest that, if this question cannot now be raised, His Majesty's Government should expressly reserve the right to raise it at some future date.
I have, &c.
F. H. MAY,
Officer Administering the Government.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Minute by Mr. Hewett.
SIR E. GREY considers it inadvisable to raise the question as to frontier trade until Germany or Japan claims such a right as already granted to France and Russia and to Great Britain as regards Burmah.
Mr. Max Müller states he believes Japan is endeavouring to secure a similar concession through Corea, and in any case it may be taken as certain that she will make such a claim, a request which, under the circumstances, the Chinese can hardly refuse, when we may reasonably expect to see Germany doing the same.
The present state of affairs bears no comparison to what existed in the time of Mr. O'Conor and Sir J. Walsham.
Russia and France, and before long probably Japan and Germany, all have or may have special opportunities for encouraging trade with China through their special spheres of influence.
In spite of protests which have been made, there still seems some doubt as to whether we can claim a reduction of duties on our railway under the most-favoured-
nation clause.
France apparently did not consider this clause sufficient, for after the annexation of Upper Burmah she made a new convention with China (in 1887) inserting in it article 7.
The British Government strangely enough, when drawing up the Burmah frontier convention, appear to have overlooked the possibility of a railway being constructed from Hong Kong to China.
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