good relations with the United Kingdom;
and they
113
repeatedly assured me that they had no à esire to
We should make
prejudice British interests in China.
the most of these assurances and our Embassy in Tokyo
should not hesitate to emphasise to the Japanese
authorities, in a most friendly but quite firm manner,
that they cannot expect the relati ons between the two
countries to improve unless these verbal assurances are
carried into practical effect. In particular, we should
press tirelessly for the abandonment of the Japanese
campaign for "autonomy" in North China, which, involving
as it does the wholesale smuggling of Japanese goods,
and the disruption of the Customs service, threatens both
our trading and our financial interests in China, and
which, if allowed to continue, will undermine both the
political and financial stability of China.
(3)
Personnel of Chinese Customs.
As the result of numerous discussions with Japanese
representatives, the Japanese Government offered to
agree that the successor to the present Inspector-
General of Customs should be British provided that
we were willing to agree that a Japanese national should
be appointed Deputy Inspector-General and that he should
be succeeded in this post by another Japanese national.
No commitment would be made as to the more remote
future but this arrangement would, it seems to me,
meet the immediate necessities. The Japanese, more
hesitatingly, asked that there should be some consulta-
tion between the two Governments as to the individuals
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