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At the conference last week in
Dr. Shiels' room with Mr. Dalton and Sir John
Pratt, on the subject of an improved liaison between the Government of Hong Kong and His Majesty's Minister in China, Sir John Pratt especially criticised the attitude of Hong Kong regarding the proposed Customs Agreement with China. He said that from the point of
view of general British interests in China it
was so important that Hong Kong should come to an agreement with the Chinese Maritime Customs
that it might be necessary for His Majesty's Government to over-rule the Governor on this
question; although he recognised that it would
be unfortunate to have to do so, since coercion would no doubt not incline the Hong Kong
authorities to establish the best relations with
the Chinese Customs. The Agreement as originally proposed by Mr. Maze to Sir Cecil Clementi,
was
then Governor of Hong Kong,/for the operation in Hong Kong waters of Chinese Maritime Customs officers and vessels for the purpose of preventing smuggling at the source. In return
Hong Kong were to receive certain valuable privileges, (a) Chinese produce shipped from one treaty port to another treaty port via Hong Kong could be trans-shipped at Hong Kong without forfeiture of its native status; (b)
foreign goods for import to China would be permitted to pay the Chinese import duty and transit dues before leaving Hong Kong.
Sir J. Pratt described this as an
offer to Hong Kong to come within the Chinese
tariff wall. It is so, of course, in a very
limited sense.
The