5.
31
in Shanghai.
Among the latter are Mr. Sun Fo, the
President of the Legislative Yuan, and General Wu Te-chen
the Mayor of this city. I enclose a copy of Mr. T. V.
Soong's speech at the reopening of business which
shows that he, at all events, regards the bank as a
purely Chinese institution,
10. If I may borrow an adjective from Mr. Small I
would urge that this state of affairs is becoming
intolerable for the British representatives in China
who are trying to maintain our extraterritorial rights
but find them continually weakened on account of abuse
by people who have no just claim to them. It would
be no real hardship to these Hongkong and Singapore
Chinese firms if they were compelled to devise other
methods for doing their China business. They would for
instance have no difficulty in forming their China
branches into native companies under local law, an
expedient already adopted by genuine British firms for
business in Japan and other countries, I hope therefore
that it may be possible to persuade the Singapore
authorities to withdraw their objections to the proposed
legislative amendments which so little affect the
legitimate commerce of the Straits Settlements but are
of great importance to British interests in this
country.
I have the honour to be,
sir,
Your Excellency's most obedient,
humble servant,
(sa) J.F. Brenan,
Consul-General.