34
on our side as the Hong Kong Government have no
power to conclude agreements with foreign
Governments.
In these circumstances the
obvious thing was to have the Agreement signed
by our Minister in China and the Chinese
Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Chinese had
objected to this, probably because they were
afraid of what the public would think of the
Agreement and wanted to minimise its importance.
The Agreement would, however, be equally valid
if it were signed by the Governor of Hong Kong
and the Inspector-General of the Maritime
Customs duly authorise. by full powers from their
respective Governments. In fact, the preamble
to the Agreement in its present form, which had
been agreed by the Chinese, provided for signature
in this manner, and it was agreed that this was
satisfactory from the Foreign Office and Colonial
Office point of view.
Sir Gilbert Grindle suggested that
an alternative way of meeting the Chinese objec-
tion might be to have the Agreement in form one between the Hong Kong Government and the Chinese Mari time Customs and to have itconfirmed later by
an Agreement between H.M.G. and the Chinese Govern-
ment which, perhaps. need not be published in
China.
Sir John Pratt agreed that this might
work