Copy
British Consulate,
TANSUI (Formosa)
March 6th 1920.
495
Dear Sir,
It has been brought to my notice that the Formosan Authorities are in the habit of telling Formosan (Japanese subject but of the Chinese race) applicants for passports to British destinations that it is unnecessary for them to obtain a visa at this Consulate.
My informant (himself a Formosan) told me that he had received this information from the authorities here and that during the last year he had made several journeys to Kong Kong without a British visa, and that the British authorities at Hong Kong had offered no objection to his landing there.
It is, of course, for the Hong Kong authorities to decide whether they will or will not admit a certain class of persons without a passport visa, but if the visa is required of foreigners in general and Japanese in particular, it seems illogical to make an exception in the case of Formosans, who are Japanese subjects and in every respect on the same footing as other Japanese.
If the Hong Kong authorities make no objection, it is certainly not incumbent upon me to do so, but I am drawing the attention of the Formosan Government to the matter and reminding them that their action does not appear to be warrant- ed by the letter of the British passport regulations, and that my instructions are to the effect that all foreigners visiting Hong Kong and other British possessions in the East are required to obtain the visa.
Yours faithfully,
(Sgd) P.A.Butler.
Acting Coneul.
PS. I am told that the case quoted is only one of a great many
Lieut. Coloenl A. A. Gunn.
Yokohama .
•