46
and
accordingly proposed to Hong Kong a Customs Agreement to
provide for a limited power for Chinese Customs Office.
vessels to operate in Hong Kong waters with the active
assistance of Hong Kong Government officials. Sir Cecil
Clementi and his advisers strongly disliked the idea of
Chinese Government officials with their well-known capacity
for anti-British political intrigue operating in Hong Kong.
He had every justification for this view from his experience
of the activities of the Kuo-Min-Tang, and of the operation
in Hong Kong of the Chinese Telegraph Office. In the
interests, however, of good relations and the suppression of
illicit trade, the Governor was prepared to come to an
agreement to protect the Chinese Customs Revenue, but he
demanded a quid pro quo in the interests of legitimate
Hong Kong trade with China.
The counter-draft which Sir
Cecil Clementi presented to the Chinese Customs has been
rejected by the Nationalist Government.
Negotiations are
now on foot for approaching a solution on different lines.
The one prepared by the new Governor, Sir William Peel, is
that the Government of Hong Kong should appoint officers, at
the expense of the Chinese Maritime Customs, to detect
smuggling