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that the Commissioner be granted official recognition, and
have such precedence as the Governor may decide. If that
does not satisfy him, I will be prepared to say that he
could have precedence next after Class I officers of the
Cadet Service. This class comprises the seven senior
civil servants after the Colonial Secretary, all being
important departmental heads. This would give as high
(if not higher status as would be accorded to Consuls. I
would rather leave it as suggested in my wire, but I give
this amount of rope if it will settle the question. I
feel definitely that i should not agree to more than this
and, if agreement on these lines cannot be obtained, the
draft will have to go the Secretary of State, who can then
decide on this point.
Maze, in his draft, has provided for the English text
to be the ruling one in case of doubt, but I leave that
to you, as also the question of signature. Before the
agreement is finally signed, we should, however, like to
see a copy of the Chinese text.
I am very anxious to get the matter settled, and I
think there is reasonable hope of it now.
I was so sorry to see that you had been ill, but
trust that you are quite recovered.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) W. PEEL.