COPY.
(F 1292/1161/10)
24
British Companies in China.
It
The meeting arranged on F 7773/383/10 of 1936 was held at
the Foreign Office on March 1st and was attended by representati
of the Board of Trade, Colonial Office and Foreign office.
was agreed that the best line of approach might be to define a
British company for the purposes of the Order-in-Council as
a company fulfilling certain conditions. Such companies would
be under British jurisdiction. Companies that did not fulfil
these conditions, although incorporated under British law, would
not be deemed to be British companies for the purpose of the
Order-in-Council, and would therefore be under Chinese jurisdicti
In special cases the Ambassador would have power to grant a
licence to a company even if it did not fulfil the prescribed
conditions. The effect of the licence would be that the company
would be deemed to be a British company for the purposes of the
Order-in-Council. If at any time the licence were cancelled
the company would remain under British jurisdiction for the
space of one year.
It was agreed that the Board of Trade, with the assistance
of Mr. Fitzmaurice, should prepare a first draft of the proposed
articles of the Order-in-Council.
These will be considered at
a further meeting, and it will probably be necessary to send them
out to Shanghai, Hongkong and Singapore.
(Signed) J. Pratt.
2nd March 1937.