35
It
appear in the body of the agreement itself but only in the preamble and purports merely to be a paraphrase of article 5 of the Convention of Peking of 1860.
seems reasonable to assume from the wording of the
latter that the Convention of 1904 is intended to
modify and amplify the wording of the Convention of
1860 and not the other way round as would appear to be the case if the phrase "the open ports of China" is considered as restricting and in fact altering the
meaning of the sentence which is underlined in
paragraph 3 above,
This may be so but it is
His Excellency The Governor states "I would
point out that the emigrants are in no way prejudiced since they enjoy the protection of the Hongkong
Emigration Ordinance".
difficult to see how it affects this international
contractural obligation which was entered into and
which apparently did not contemplate the existence
of such an ordinanÆND,
5.
In view of the doubts surrounding this question, I have the honour to request that I may receive your instructions in due course as to the form of the reply
to be made to the letter dated 18th April last fro
the Mayor of Canton,
6. I have sent a copy of this despatch to the Crow
Advocate at Shanghai,
I have the honour to be,
air,
Your most obedient,
hrable servant,
(3d) Herbert Phillips.
Consul-General.