12)
23.
In view of the facts of the present situ- ation in China, as I have endeavoured to describe it, Ris Majesty's Government would I venture to think be well advised to defer any definite decisions concerning the Customs Tariff, Extra-Territoriality and the Boxer Indemity until the future is less obscure than it is today: and I would urge that instead there should be, in the first
instance, a frank discussion with the Government of the United States, to be followed (if successful) by a joint
discussion of the British and American Governments with
the Government of Japan and thereafter with the Government
of France, in order to determine what should be the future
policy of the Great Powers in China now that the integrity of Ching is unlikely to be anything but a fiction for several years,
24.
In conclusion I should add that the reason
why I have ventured to address you upon this subject, which
falls more properly within the purview of His Majesty's
Minister at Peking, is the fact that a satisfactory readjustment of British policy in China is a matter of
immense importance to the future of the Colony of Hong Kong. The geographical propinquity of Hongkong to Canton and the position of this harbour at the mouth of the West
River Valley are circumstances with which the Government
of this Colony, so long as it exists, will always have to reckon. We must, therefore, maintain the friendliest relations with the authorities of the Kuang-tung and Kuang-hai provinces and it is an unfortunate fact that, for several years past, this prime object of policy has been sacrificed to the illusory hope of maintaining cordial relations with a non-existent central goverment of China. We have in
Kuang-tung