33
and all hope of negotiating an agreement providing for the
continuance of such protection in future would disappear.
Mr.Henderson
4. No reasons have been given in this correspondence for
believing that a Chinese Consul at Kuala Lumpur would interfere
on behalf of British subjects of Chinese race to any greater
extent than Chinese Consuls at other places in Malaya, or that,
if he did so, there would be any special difficulty, peculiar
to Kuala Lumpur, in dealing with such a situation.
believes, therefore, that the best way of guarding against the
danger apprehended by the Government of the Federated Malay
States is not to raise the question at all in the first instance
with the Chinese Government but to act on the assumption that,
as a matter of course, the Chinese Consul at Kuala Lumpur will
regulate his activities in accordance with the ordinary rules
of international law. Should he fail to do so the matter
should be dealt with through the ordinary diplomatic channel,
and in particular any pretension to interfere on behalf of
British subjects of Chinese race should be firmly resisted.
I am therefore to suggest for Lord Passfield's consideration
that the last sentence of paragraph 4 of the draft in question
might be amended in the sense of the draft enclosed herewith.
5.
With regard to the point raised in the concluding sentence
of your letter under reference Mr. Henderson would prefer to defer
expressing any opinion until he has obtained the views of His
Majesty's Minister in Peking.
He proposes therefore to send a
copy of this correspondence to Sir M. Lampson with a request for
his observations on this point.
communication will be addressed to you on this subject.
On receipt of his reply a further
I am
Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
CW. Dude