C
2.
31
in (5)
Secretary states that the Hong Kong Government has little
hope that special treatment on the lines suggested will be
obtained.
I appreciate the sogency of the arguments adduced
by the Chamber as to the effect on Hong Kong industries of
a high Chinese tariff wall, but there seems little hope of
persuading the Chinese Government to agree that goods ma123 –
factured in Hong Kong and Kowloon should be allowed free
entry into China without the handicap of a tariff in com-
peting with articles mamfactured in China proper, The
attitude of the Banking Government over the question of ex-
tending the privileged factory treatment to Hong Kong fao-
tories, in cormsetion with the negotiations for a Custom
agreement, bears out this view; nor is it clear what we
should have to offer as a guid pro quo for the grant of this
e oncession.
4. As I have more than once pointed out in my des-
patches on the subject of the Customs agreement, (see, for
instance, paragraph 6 of my despatch Number 1587 of October
31st 1930) there is moreover a danger in assimilating the
status of Hong Kong too nearly to that of a Chinese Treaty
Port, in view of Chinese irredentist aspirations; and it
is, I fear, too much for the Colony to expect to "have it
both ways", i.e. to enjoy the security of a British CrowA
Colony and have all the economio privileges of a dependemy
of the Republic of China.
5.
The memoranda prepared by the Hong Kong Chamber
for the fariff Gonference of 1925-26 are somewhat out of
date in the light of the subsequent tariff autonomy treaties,
and/