76
exceptional compensatory advantages.
I cannot resist the
suspicion that much of the talk on Mr. Maze's part of the
revival of the blockade, and consequent damage to the trade
of Hong Kong, is of the nature of a bluff, and it is possible
that, if the matter could have been taken up in the first
instance directly with the Minister of Finance, a settle-
ment might perhaps have been found without insistence upon
such unwise issues as these. While I am convinced that
Mr. Maze thoroughly believes in the justice of his cause,
and has the interests of the administration of which he is
the head entirely at heart, his methods frankly do not ap-
peal to me and I feel that in this matter, as in his recent
attempts to browbeat the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank to
follow the line of action d esired by the National Government
over the question of the Tientsin Customs revenues, (see
His Majesty's Minister's Representative's telegrams Numbers
45 and 46 of 15th May, 1930) he is adopting an attitude
which does not tend to smoothe away the admitted difficul-
ties of his task in ite relation to foreign interests.
handling of these questions seems to me to contrast unfav-
ourably with the tact and ability he has shewn in preserv-
ing and consolidating the powers and functions of the Cus-
toms Administration vis-à-vis the other departments of the
National Government.
7.
His
It is not my object in writing this despatch to
call attention to any particular angle of the question, or
to dogmatise on what is admittedly a most complicated and
highly technical matter, demanding all the resources of
wide