n
COPY.
Translation.
C.O 21323
207
23 IN
From Lo P'an Hui, Commissioner of Foreign Affairs,
To H. M. Consul-General.
Canton, May 15, 1913.
Limestone.
The Commissioner of Foreign Affairs is instructed by Governor Hu that he has received from His Majesty's Consul-General a Memorandum, dated the 22nd. ultimo, in which the Government of
Kuangtung is accused of having taken action deliberately calculat-
-ed to cut off supplies of limestone to the Green Island Cement
Company, thereby causing the Company to suffer losses for which His Majesty's Consul-General has to claim compensation.
Although the case might have been arranged with no difficulty in its early stage, it has now formed matter for diplomatic negotiation during several months; it is still unsettled; and all this time the Green Island Company have gone without limestone. The cause of this delay lies entirely with His Majesty's Consul- -General in having advanced the statement that the Government were in error in acting as they have done and in claiming damages there- -for. The dispate has dragged on interminably, although this Govern
-ment never from first to last had the remotest intention of cut-
-ting off limestone supplies nor have they in the least fractional
degree broken any treaty.
Previous discussion has already shown that the arguments advanced by Mr. Jamieson for demanding compensation are valueless and inconsequent. The claim itself is entirely unreasonable, nor
can it for a moment be entertained by this Government. These
points must be here repeated in view of the Memorandum under acknowledgment.
Whether or not the Green Island Company's contracts were
carried out with the knowledge and approval of the late Government,
does not affect the procedure laid down by the present Government,
whose line of action is based upon their own laws, not one of
which
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