4 .
3431).
CHINA ASSOCIATION,
12923
159, CANNON STREET,
316
INE OR
LECE 8 APR 14
LONDON, E.C.
24th February 1914.
Sir:-
I am directed to thank you for your letter of the
23rd January enclosing draft of proposed Regulations to
control dealings in Company Shares in China, which has
been read and considered with interest.
The Committee are hardly sanguine that such an
enactment would remedy the evil against which it is
directed, but they see no reason to offer any objection
to its being put in force.
They desire to point out, however, that the com=
pulsory insertion of numbers in every contract of sale
might seriously hamper legitimate business when one of
the contracting parties lives at a distance
-
say in
London as the cost of telegraphing a variety of
numbers would in many cases be prohibitive.
In any case the Committee strongly suggest that
the words "null and void to all intents and purposes"
should be substituted for the word "illegal" in Article 3.
of the Alternative draft. It seems illogical to brand
a transaction as illegal when no penalty is attached to
18 Majesty's Under Secretary of State
1t
:
t
for Foreign Affairs.