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Government's request, subject (1) to all the other Powers concerned (viz. France, Japan and the United States of America) adopting the same course, and (2) to sufficient
safeguarde and the right to re-establish the British Agencies should such a step prove necessary through the inadequacy of the Chinese postal facilities (see para. 4 of Sir J. Jordan's abovementioned despatch), M. Destelan remarked that the attitude of the French authorities was, he understood, much the same; he himself considered, however, that it would be well for the Powers, before
renouncing their present rights, to obtain some guarantee against any application by the Chinese of a censorship of
mails, such as was enforced during the disturbances of
the summer of last year.
The Japanese Chargé d'Affaires, on the other
hand, asked me a few days ago, of his own initiative,
what the attitude of this Legation was in this matter.
On my explaining it to him, Mr. Yoshida observed that he
doubted whether the conditions for which we proposed to
stipulate, and with which I understood him to be in
agreement, would be obtainable from the Chinese
Government and that he thought, therefore, that foreign
post offices in China would not be abolished.
Nevertheless, in spite of Mr. Yoshida's opinion,
I would suggest that I should be authorised by Your
Lordship to state in reply to the note from the Waichiao-
Pu that His Majesty's Government will be prepared to
abolish the British post offices in China subject to
the following conditions:-
1.
That the Postal Agencies of all nations shall
be/
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