COPY.
Enclosure
Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce.
sir,
10
Hongkong, 9th. June,
1917.
17
L
I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 86th. April last (No. 3679/1916) enclosing a copy of an "Interim Report on the Importation of Goods from the Present Enemy Countries after the War" presented by Lord Balfour of Burleigh's Committee on Commercial and Industrial Folicy, and requesting the
views of this Chamber thereon.
1
My Committee have assumed that their views have been
requested on the subject matter of the Report as affecting the
Empire generally and not merely this Colony.
They have based their views on the assumption that
the Allies will be able to dictate the terme on which peace wil1
they
be granted, but realise that the policy to be adopted with regard
to enemy gcode will be largely governed by the peace terms the Allies are able to insist upon.
Subject to the above, my Committee have come to the
following conclusione:-
1. That they are inclined to agree with Sir Alfred Booth's
memorandum, and to think that the objects of the Paris Economic
Conference can be better attained by a tariff.
2. That prohibition of imports required in the United Kingdom
which cannot be obtained within the Dominions or from the Allied
Nations would be detrimental to our own interests.
3. That facilities and where necessary assistance should be
afforded to British Industries which have been inaugurated since
the war beran for the manufacture of articles of trade which had
previously been largely in the hands of enemy countries.
4. That little progress can be made with 2 and 3 above without
first consulting the self Governing Overseas Dominione, in order
to arrive at some basis of negotiation with the Allied Ratione and