[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
127
FROM CHINA,
Sir M. Lampson. (Peking).
Decypher.
D.
No. 109.
April 7th. 1931.
April 7th. 1931.
R. 9.00.a.m. April 8th. 1931.
102
Your telegram No. 49.
(94)
I note alterations I am authorized to make. In order to afford me greater elasticity in negotiations may I if necessary offer the following additional alterations?
2. In first sentence in place of "as may be reason- ably necessary" read "as are necessary".
I
3. Brown of Butterfield and Swire expressed the opinion at meeting in Shanghai (see Shanghai telegram 5) that our original phrase "by agreement with the captain" was not an essential point and might even be undesirable as throwing unreasonable responsibility on captain. said the object I had had in mind in original draft agree- ment was that Chinese armed forces desiring to search a British ship should only proceed to do so in an orderly manner after notification to and by arrangement with cap- tain instead of invading the ship without notice as some- times happened. I suggest that I be authorized to make use of the following two alternatives: Insert a full stop after "requisition". Then proceed as before ending "except with consent, etc. which will not be unreasonably withheld"
"except in the case of special emergency after due notification to and by arrangement with captain, etc."
or
In
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