t
67
Articles 37 B in *A* and 39 in "B" are identical, and pro-
vide for the policing of the line. A further difference
between "A" and "B" occurs in Article 37, concerning the
collection of Customs duties, the words "when agreed upon
between the Hognkong Government and the Imperial Chinese
Government", which appear in the Article as agreed to by
Er. Chao Ching Hua, being deleted from the reprint in *B*.
Your Excellency has signed in anticipation the six
reprints "B", and you request me to obtain thereon the signs-
ture of the Fresident of the Board of Communications, covered
by an Imperial Edict or other binding guarantee. I fear
that it will not prove feasible to obtain the signature ex-
actly in this way. Apart from the question of the
raised requisite formlities and authorities at my interview with
the Board of Communications today, as described below, the
three clauses to which the negotiators for the Hongkong
Goverment have failed to obtain the assent of the Chinese
negotiators are, I fear, not likely to be accepted as they
stand by the Board.
The