257
the advantages which the Agreement would confer on Hongkong,
and to have said that he and the high officials with whom he
had discussed it at Canton are against its conclusion. He
implied that they saw no profit in it either for themselves or
for the Provincial Treasury, because under the present system
the Customs revenues are remitted to the Central Government whom
it would strengthen at local cost. So far they adopt a negative
attitude and refuse to interest themselves in the matter. Should
it assume an aspect of urgency, I should expect to find the Canton
authorities in arms against it, unless by that time they have
advanced far on the road to regional autonomy.
In any
This considera-
tion may somewhat mitigate any feeling of discouragement
which failure to arrive at an immediate agreement on the Customs
problem at Hongkong might provoke. It is probably not quite so
urgent a problem as Mr. Maze would have us believe.
case the reluctance of Canton is an obstacle not for Hongkong
but for Nanking to overcome since it is the Central Government
which is losing revenue from the smuggling through Hongkong,
Macao and Kwang chowwan. If an Agreement is to be concluded
with the Central Government, care should be taken that it be
signed on the part of the Chinese not only by representatives
of Nanking and the Customs, but by representatives of Canton,
and that requirement should be made clear at Nanking beforehand:
Meanwhile the authorities at Canton are fully engrossed in
defending their City against armies hostile to themselves and
to Nanking.
I have, etc.,
(Sd.) G.S. Moss.
Acting Consul-General.