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subjects within three months of their arrival in the country, it would, in the Secretary of State'e opinion, be possible for His Majesty's Consular officers to refuse registration
to persons of these classes at any later period, unless they show good cause for their failure to register at a British consular office. It would no doubt in that case be possible to make arrangements for carrying out this recognition such as are provided for in the agreement between the Netherlands Government and the Chinese Government.
5. Until such an arrangement can be reached, it will be necessary, in Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's opinion, for Sir R. Macleay to continue to act on the lines indicated in paragraph 8 of his despatch of June 15th, maintaining the right to continue to register all British subjects already registered as such in China, in the case of Yeap Seng Koon and in all other outstanding cases. It would clearly be desirable
to maintain the present position until the negotiations with the Chinese Government had been begun; and it should be part of the general arrangement, when effected, that the present registrations should receive the recognition of that
government.
7.
At some stage it will no doubt be necessary to modify the present elaborate system of certificates issued by the various colonial governments to the British subjects
Subject to the concurrence belonging to their territories,
of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald would therefore deprecate the introduction of any sweeping changes in the present system pending the conclusion of
or