C
Any further communication
the subject, please quote
No.
85286/45x.
and address-
The Controller.
Foreign Trade Department.
Telephone: Garrard 8640.
URGENT
C. POREIGN TRade Department,
50942
LANCASTER HOUSE,
REC?
ST. JAMES,
REG 25 OCT 16
S.W.
24ta October 1916.
Sir,
With reference to your letter of the 20th instant,
enclosing copy of a telegram dated the 19th instant,
relating to the forwarding of the goods detained ex 8.8,
"Kafue", I am directed by Viscount Grey of Fallodon to
atate, for the information of the Secretary of State for
the Colonies, that in his opinion the course proposed
by the shipowners is objectionable for the reason pointed
out by the Governor, namely that it would tend to throw
responsibility on His Majesty's Government and on the
Government of Hong Kong.
Sugh a course would appear, moreover, to be un-
necessary, and Lord Grey is of opinion that consent to
the proposal could very well be withheld on this ground
alone, did the previously mentioned objection not make
it highly undesirable.
Lord Grey is advised that the shipowners' proper
course is to insert in the Bill of Lading as shippers the
name of the original shippers, for whom in what they are
doing they are acting as agents of necessity.
If they
are unwilling for any reason to adopt this course, they
The Under-Secretary of State,
COLONIAL OFFICE.
should/
558